


Bargaining Chip

by can08writer



Series: Bargaining Chip [1]
Category: The Walking Dead & Related Fandoms, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Richonne - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-24
Packaged: 2019-04-17 16:43:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 44,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14193273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/can08writer/pseuds/can08writer
Summary: After the group's run in with Negan and the Saviors at the end of season 6, Michonne is taken hostage to ensure Rick's cooperation. Will she ever see her family again? A Richonne and Grimes 2.0 story. First Story of four.





	1. Chapter 1

Almost her whole family, those she loved, those she respected, those she would die for, were on their knees, surrounded, in the dark forest. Negan, the leader of the Saviors, the man who's soldiers they had been killing off, was pacing in front of them with a baseball bat named Lucille, taunting them.

"Which one of you pricks is the leader?" Negan drawled. Michonne's heart sank as one of the Saviors said "This one... This is the guy" and pointed Rick out.

Out of the corner of her eye Michonne glanced at Rick, the man she loved. He was hunched over, shaking, his blue eyes wide and looking terrified. Sweat dripped from his hair as if he had a high fever, and his skin was sheet white. She had never seen him so scared, so horrified. She had never seen him so broken. He knew she and their son Carl were in danger, and she knew that would make him unpredictable, he wouldn't be thinking clearly.

_Please calm down Rick... please...it'll be ok._

She tried to telepathically warn him not to react, to stay on his knees and look at the ground. Negan kept talking, but Michonne was still trying to telepathically communicate with Rick and wasn't listening. And then Negan started to try to intimidate Carl.

"You got one of our guns. You got a lot of our guns." Negan kneeled in front of Carl and stared him down looking for weakness, crying, shaking, anything. When he got none of that Negan actually seemed impressed. "Shit kid, lighten up. At least cry a little."

He wanted Carl to cry or look scared. When Negan kneeled down and got in Carl's face, Michonne bunched her hands into fists. She knew if he touched her son she wouldn't be able to hold it together. She would leap past her kneeling family members and tear Negan's throat out if Rick didn't get there first. She prayed Negan didn't touch Carl, for everyone's sake, because she knew that many more people would die, including her, if he did. Her heart nearly burst from her chest when Carl continued to stare at Negan. Thankfully, Negan began talking and pacing again. Secretly she was proud of her son, but she was afraid that his stubbornness would put him in danger. She saw that Rick had stopped breathing when Negan kneeled in front of Carl.

_Just relax baby, he didn't hurt our boy. Don't say anything, he doesn't know he's your son. Just relax baby. Calm down._

But she wasn't taking her own advice. She couldn't let Negan think he was going to intimidate her. That he had broken her. As he walked past her she stared him dead in the eye, even turning her head to keep eye contact with him. Her gesture seemed to throw him off a little. He definitely seemed surprised that one of the women were staring him down. Rosita, Sasha, and Maggie were all crying and looking down at the ground or at Negan's barbed wire laced baseball bat as he walked by. The men were looking down too, thankfully even Rick, the strongest man she knew. The only other person staring down Negan was Abraham.

And then, Negan seemed to piece together that Carl was Rick's son.

"This is your kid right? This is definitely your kid!" Negan exclamed excitedly, pointing his bat directly at Carl. Rick finally snapped, yelling "You stop this!". Negan made his way back to Rick "Hey! Do not make me kill the little future serial killer, do not make it easy on me! I gotta pick somebody".

And then Negan began pacing again, trying to decide who he was going to kill while whistling the creepy Savior's calling card. Suddenly he stopped and Michonne was floored by what Negan said next. "I simply cannot decide. I got an idea. Eenie. Meenie. Miney..." As he sang the children's song he began pointing his bat at each of her family members. At "Mo" he pointed Lucille directly in Michonne's face and she gave him her best death stare. She couldn't believe after all that her family had gone through, one of them would die because of a game of eenie, meenie, miney, mo. He continued with the children's song until he got to "you. are. it".

Michonne's head snapped to attention to see who he was finally pointing at. It was Abraham. Michonne glanced over at Abraham who was kneeling directly next to her, and he was still standing tall, staring directly at Negan.

Now, Negan addressed the rest of the family "Anybody moves, anybody says anything, cut the boy's other eye out and feed it to his father, and then we'll start. You can breathe, you can blink, you can cry. Hell, you're all gonna be doing that".

As Negan raised his baseball bat Abraham turned his head to stare directly into Sasha's eyes. He looked like he was about to say something, but then the bat smashed into the top of his head. Sasha let out a blood curdling scream that echoed through the forest. Negan stopped after he hit Abraham to admire his handiwork, and to his delight Abraham started to get back to his knees.

"Taking it like a champ!" Negan chucked. Then, he continued to slam the bat into Abraham's head again and again and again. Michonne was horrified. Out of all the horrific things that she had gone through, watching Abraham's head being bashed in was the absolute worse. It was even worse than Hershel being decapitated next to her. With every swing Negan made, blood, brain matter, and skull fragments showered her clothing and hair. A large chunk of skull even landed in her mouth which was hanging open in horror, causing her to gag. Michonne felt the hot tears welling up in her eyes and even she couldn't hold them back anymore. Negan kept swinging until Abraham no longer had a head.

Negan finally stopped swinging and gleefully wiped some blood off his face. "Whooo, what a work out. I mean it's not like we have gyms anymore, am I right?". He looked around like he was waiting for a response. Everyone including his own men were silent. Even Sasha's sobs had become muted.

Negan seemed to suddenly lose interest in the situation altogether and stalked over to Rick. "This is what's going to happen, we will be at your compound in three days, and when we show up you're gonna open those gates wide and let me in. I'm gonna take half your shit, and you're gonna smile while I do it. And if you and your people get the retarded idea that you're gonna try to pull something, I will shoot the boy point blank. Got it?". Rick didn't respond. Negan slowly moved over to Carl and Rick quickly mumbled "Got it."

A smile spread across Negan's face. "Good! Now, I'm taking one of you with me to make sure we don't have anyone going around murdering my men in the middle of the night before I pay your compound a visit. You can't be too careful nowadays, I need insurance." Everyone's heads snapped up at this news, even Daryl's who was on the verge on passing out from his gunshot wound.

Negan walked over to Michonne and held out his hand. "You look like quite a tough ass lady. I'd like to get to know you better". Michonne stared at the hand in front of her.

_Is he seriously giving me a pick up line? Oh God, Rick please don't flip out, for Carl's sake._

"No!" Rick growled from his spot on the floor. He started to get up, but Michonne shut it down with one word. "Rick!". There was so much meaning in that word.

_Rick I will be ok. Thank you for trying to protect me, but I can handle myself, and if you get up right now you will kill Carl and all of our other family members. He won't hurt me because he wants your cooperation. You can live without me for 3 days. You have to think. Calm down._

Rick stared at her, and it seemed their telepathy did it's trick. He almost imperceptably nodded his head and settled back down. This exchange wasn't lost on Negan who grinned. "Rick! Is this your woman too? Damn Rick you lucky boy, you get to keep her warm at night. I didn't even know. I just picked her 'cuz she's fine as hell, and that stare is tickling me in all the right places, but now I see where your boy get's his evil ass stare from".

Negan put his hand out to Michonne again. "Let's go". Ignoring Negan's hand, Michonne stood up on her own and stared into Negan's eyes.

"I'm not a monster you know, I'll give you a minute to say goodbye if you behave yourself". Michonne nodded and walked over to Carl. He stood up as she approached him. She could see tears streaming down his face, but besides that his features were emotionless. She hugged him as hard as she could. She knew he was only holding on by a string and he would probably break down on the way home, but she didn't want him to do it here. He was trying so hard not to do it here. "I will come back" she whispered. "I'll be ok. I promise". He nodded. After a few seconds he replied "I know... Mom". His response almost made her lose it. She pulled back and looked into his eyes and saw he had started to shake a little. She just smiled and moved down the row, giving the rest of the family a hug as they continued to kneel. She saved Rick for last.

As he leaped up and wrapped his arms around her she almost lost it again. She could feel him shaking and his breaths coming out in short bursts. She realized he was sobbing. "Rick" she whispered. "Please be strong for me. I will come back. Remember what I said yesterday morning. I'm not losing you. You're not losing me. I need you to think, don't panic, and don't do anything stupid... I love you". She held on to him until Negan boomed. "Ok break it up, we have a long trip home... And I know you do too" he said directing the last part towards Rick. "Don't worry, I'll take good care of her for you" he said, winking towards Rick.

Michonne slowly backed away from Rick keeping her eyes on him. She tried to memorize every line on his face and the exact color of his beautiful blue eyes, just in case. She then forced herself to turn around and walk towards this madman who had just murdered her friend and threatened her son and the man she loved. She followed him up to an SUV where another Savior wrapped wire around her wrists to bind them. She looked back at her family who were still kneeling on the hard forest floor except for Carl and Rick, and wondered if she would ever see them again. They looked so broken, dejected... hopeless. The Savior who was binding her hands gave his handiwork a final jerk, making her turn back around. Then suddenly he wrapped a blindfold around her face.

She could feel herself being pushed into the back seat of an SUV, with two fairly large men sitting on either side of her. She was squished in the middle and had no choice but to touch them. She heard two other people get into the driver and front passenger seat. She suddenly jumped when she felt someone touch her right hip, but then she realized someone was strapping a seat belt on her. "Don't worry honey, when I get you alone I'm gonna touch way more than that...", the seat belt buckler whispered. The Savior on her left side chuckled at the comment. She heard the ignition turn on and then the car started moving.


	2. Chapter 2

They had been driving for hours, she really couldn't tell how many. Abraham's blood, brain matter, and skull fragments still littered her clothes, hair, and skin making her sticky. The SUV was hot with 5 people piled into it, and her muscles hurt from trying to make herself smaller so that she wouldn't have to touch the men sitting on either side of her. There was almost no conversation in the SUV, except for an occasional "watch that hole!" or "dead ones ahead" from whoever was sitting in the front passenger seat. Michonne had plenty of time to ponder the events of the last two days. Two mornings ago she had woken up next to Rick after one of the most wonderful nights of her life. Making love to him got better and better every time they did it, every time she learned a little more about him, what he liked, what he loved, how to make him squirm or beg. She loved to tease him, and he did the same to her. But there were times he was so gentle, so reverant, like he was worshipping her body. She had never known love like that before, she had never known a connection like the one she had with Rick. Just thinking about him made her teeter on the verge of tears again.

Come on Michonne, get yourself together. You can do this. Three days and you'll be home again.

The morning she had woken up next to Rick he had asked her to stay in bed, but she insisted on helping Glenn and Maggie strengthen Alexandria's defenses. That choice led to her getting in a van with Glenn and Rosita to go after Daryl who took off on a revenge mission. As a result, she, Rosita, Glenn, and Daryl were all captured and held in the back of a van by the Saviors for almost 24 hours. Daryl had been shot in the shoulder and she was convinced that if he didn't see a doctor soon he would bleed to death. At one point while they were all being held in the van, she and Daryl had been pulled out. She had no idea what her captors were going to do, but she knew it wouldn't be good. They made both she and Daryl get on their knees. Then, a man with a mustache stood in front of them.

"Take off your vest" he demanded. She looked him in the eye but didn't move. He leaned in closer to her and said "Take off your vest, or I'll take it off you, and you may not like the way I do it". She continued to stare. She didn't know what this was leading to, would he tell her to take her shirt off too? She glanced over at Daryl and he quickly met her eyes. He looked horrible and she thought she saw his eyes roll upwards in his head for a second. He was on the verge of collapse, and her refusal could put him in danger. She then made her decision. A vest was a vest, it wouldn't hurt to do what he said. She quickly took the vest off and handed it to him. As she suspected, he ran his eyes up and down her body. He turned his eyes to Daryl.

"Take off your vest" he demanded to Daryl. Daryl made a move to remove his vest and then grunted in pain. "Let me help him" she said. Before the mustached man had a chance to respond, Michonne leaned over and helped Daryl remove his vest as carefully as possible.

There was an uncomfortable silence after the two of them had given up their vests. Michonne didn't know what they would be used for, but she figured it was for some type of psychological warfare against her family.

"Stand up" the mustache man demanded. Michonne took her time getting up, and then she leaned down and helped Daryl up off the floor. She noticed that Daryl left a small pool of blood on the floor from his continuously bleeding wound. "He needs to see a doctor" she said "If you don't stop the bleeding now he'll die. And I don't think that would do well for bargaining". The mustache man looked at Michonne for a few seconds and then yelled to another man to bring Daryl a blanket. The second man threw the blanket at Daryl and Daryl caught it with his good arm. Michonne helped wrap it around his shoulders and she told him to press down on the gunshot wound. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the mustache man take out a knife.

She froze and snapped her head back to him. "You move and this goes through your head" he threatened as he moved toward her face with the knife. She took a step backwards. "Look bitch, we do this the easy way or the hard way, your choice" he growled. He took another step forward and she didn't back away this time. The knife was inches from her eye. The man grabbed a handful of Michonne's locs but this time she didn't flinch. He used the knife to cut off two of them. She was so surprised she didn't know what to do. She didnt expect him to chop off some of her hair.

"Put them back in" the mustache man commanded. Michonne and Daryl were then thrown back into the van to rejoin Glenn and Rosita.

The remaining time the four of them spent in the back of the van was the definition of psychological torture. They could hear massive amounts of people moving outside of the van, it had to be over 50. It sounded like a picnic or a party. At one point floodlights were turned on and the bright light filtered in through holes in the windows of the van. Michonne could hear laughing and loud drunken conversations, and occasionally she could catch a few words or understandable sentences.

"Yea... roadblock done, chained the dead ones ... stuck some of that black bitches' hair on one... couple of arrows from the redneck... gonna be awesome..."

"So he's shitting his pants... realizes ain't nowhere to run... should be here real soon"

It was obvious these people were waiting for someone, but she didn't know who. She figured it was Negan and they were probably all going to be executed. Glenn was the first to break the silence that the four of them had kept for hours. "When they open that door, we all need to run in different directions. Michonne, you run around towards the passenger side of the van, Daryl, you run diagonally from the back left side, Rosita you run towards the drivers side of the van, and I'll run diagonally from the back right side. If we all scatter in different directions they won't have a single target to shoot".

There was silence for a few seconds. Then, Rosita spoke, "It sounds like we are completely outnumbered, there is no way we are getting through all those people". Silence again.

"This can't be the end" Glenn whispered, his voice shaking now "After all we've lived through, all I've lived through, I can't die like this. I need to see my baby. I will fight through anyone to get home, I don't care how many of them there are".

Michonne felt the same way. She couldn't die like this, not after just realizing how much Rick and Carl and Judith meant to her. "You're right Glenn, we have to try, we've gotten through worse. I'm with you".

Daryl tried to speak but it seemed like the effort was taking everything out of him "Y'all run... I'll draw the fire... can't run". Michonne reached over and checked his blanket, it was soaked through with blood and he was now running a fever. It didn't look good for him. She ran her fingers through his hair to soothe him, but she didn't have any really convincing words for him. It looked like he might die tonight, but it looked that way for all of them.

As Michonne thought back to the events that occured that night, about how Abraham died, and how random it was, and how lucky she was to still be breathing right now, she just felt tired. She wanted this whole ordeal to end. She wanted to be back home with her children and Rick. Her thoughts were interrupted when the SUV suddenly came to a halt.

"Home sweet home" the man on her right declared, while yawning. "Hope you ain't sleepin' darlin'". He unbuckled her seatbelt and this time he purposely squeezed her hip causing her to jump again. She heard his laughing as he yanked her out of the van almost causing her to fall flat on her face as she hit the floor.

"Hey!" she heard Negan yell from nearby. "Get your filthy hands off of her, you damage her and I damage you, got it?". "Yes, Negan sir" the man fumbled and quickly let her go. For a few seconds no one was holding on to her and she wondered if she should take this opportunity to make a run for it, but her hands were tied and she had a blindfold on, she wasn't going anywhere.

After a while someone else grabbed her elbow. "This way my lady" she recognized the voice of Negan. His touch made her skin crawl, but she had no choice but to follow his lead. She could tell she was walking on some type of gravel, she was definitely outside. They walked for a while and then went through a door that led to some huge room. She could tell by the accoustics that this room was big. Someone shouted "Negan has returned!", and then as if a king had entered his castle she could hear large numbers of people hitting the floor. Either they were kneeling or laying down, but they were getting on the floor. "As you were" Negan responded, then he spoke to her "See that? respect". But he immediately started chuckling as he realized she couldn't see anything because of the blindfold. She could feel his hands in her hair untying the blindfold, and she immediately shuddered.

As he took the blindfold off, Michonne started blinking her eyes, unaccustomed to the lighted room. She squinted around and saw what looked like hundreds of people starting to stand up from a kneeling position. It was more people than Alexandria and the Hilltop combined.

Michonne didn't know what to think. Was this a prison? Were these people all captives like she was? Did these people really think he was a king? or were they being held at gunpoint? She didn't know the answer to any of those questions, but she tried to see as much as possible to pick up on any details that she could get.

"Now you must be tired my dear with being held hostage and all. Sherry here will get you a meal, a shower, and a bed for the night" Negan said. Suddenly a girl stepped out from the shadows, she had to be about 18 or 19 years old. She looked well fed and clean, but Michonne noticed the skimpy cut off shorts she had on and the tight fitting T-shirt with a low v-neck. She had on too much make-up for a girl her age, and she looked something like a trashy barbie doll. "Hi, I'm Sherry" the girl said in a southern drawl that reminded Michonne of Beth so much.

"Now I have things and ladies to do" Negan said smiling at Michonne. "But I'll see you tomorrow after you've rested. And we can have a little talk, just you and me".


	3. Chapter 3

Michonne followed Sherry down a series of hallways. She tried to memorize the twists and turns but they had been walking for at least ten minutes and this place was built like a maze. Michonne settled on memorizing the colors of the lines painted on the floor. They seemed to be in some kind of factory and it seemed like each section of the factory had a different color line painted on the floors. Michonne was flanked by two armed men. If she wasn't, she probably would've knocked Sherry out and made a run for it.

She hoped neither of these men were the ones riding in the SUV with her on the way here. Since they weren't talking she had no idea, but the one who was sitting on her right in the SUV was definite trouble and she wanted to avoid him at all costs.

Suddenly, Sherry stopped and pointed at a door. "The showers for the women are in here. I figured you would want one..." Sherry stared at Michonne's shirt and face. Michonne just stared back. She didn't know what was in that room and she wasn't sure she wanted to find out. Sherry seemed to pick up on the mistrust and opened the door herself, flipping the light on. "See?" Michonne took a step forward and peered into the room. It was a large room with 5 individual showers. The floor and walls seemed to be amazingly clean as if there was a full time cleaning staff who wiped it down every night.

"Come on, it's ok". Sherry tried to coax Michonne into the room. "I'll stand right here and wait for you if you want" Sherry said, and purposely swung her eyes over to the armed guards.

She seemed to be saying _"I'll be a look out for you if you're worried about them hurting you"._

Michonne walked further into the room. She did really want a shower, she was still covered with Abraham's blood and brains, and her own sweat from a long car ride sitting between two sweaty thugs. But taking her clothes off in this place, without knowing these people, and with the threats that had been thrown at her from the Saviors... she didn't want to risk it.

Sherry seemed to read her mind. "Ok, how 'bout you come with me to the women's quarters and pick out some clothes. Then we can come back here when you're feelin' more comfortable, and when you change into those clothes I'll have these washed for you."

Michonne stared at Sherry for a moment. She didn't know what to think about this young girl, but that offer seemed reasonable enough. She nodded quickly, and then added "I'll wash my own clothes".

Sherry nodded. As she and Michonne left the shower room, Michonne noted the color of the lines on the floor. Shower room, white lines.

She followed Sherry down another series of hallways until they reached a locked door. Sherry took the key out of the pocket of her too short cut off jeans. "These are the women's quarters, only Negan's wives are allowed in here... and other female guests".

Michonne thought she heard Sherry wrong. "Only Negan's wife is allowed in here? Does that mean you're married to Negan?"

"Wives" Sherry corrected "He has quite a few, but yes I'm one of 'em. And I wouldn't say we're married in the traditional sense".

Michonne froze. She didn't quite understand what Sherry was talking about, but she knew she did not want anything to do with Negan's wives. And if Negan was in there, there was no way she would be.

Sherry noticed Michonne backing away from the door, and so did the guards who pushed the butts of their guns into her back.

"It's ok. you don't have to stay with the wives, we have guest rooms for other female guests. I guess that's what you are... I know it's weird, but if it makes you feel better, Negan won't be comin' back in here tonight, he's already made his choice for the night" Sherry explained.

"Or, you can stay out here in the hallway with me tonight sweetness" One of the guards whispered, and she immediately recognized the voice. It was the man from the SUV. She turned around and took in his chubby face and greasy hair. Her stomach turned and it took all her self control not to spit in his face.

Instead, Michonne turned and walked into the women's quarters, noticing that the guards didn't follow them in. Once again, everything was surprisingly spotless and orderly. It seemed to be set up like a dorm suite, with a kitchen and living room that was shared, and then doors to smaller rooms which she assumed were bedrooms. It was actually a nice set up, but just knowing that the rooms belonged to women who willingly had sex with Negan disgusted her. And the fact that this young girl, who actually seemed pretty sweet, was one of those women saddened her.

"This way, this is where we keep the extra clothin' " Sherry explained. She led Michonne to a closet in the living room. She opened it wide and Michonne was shocked by the sheer number of choices available. And all of the choices were name brands. Versace, Guess, Dior, Armani.

Sherry smiled, "it's like every woman's dream right?". Michonne knew that 3 years ago she would have died to try on half of these clothes. But since then, she had really almost died so many times that name brands didn't mean much to her anymore.

"You have a t-shirt and jeans?" she muttered. Sherry looked a little apologetic. "Not really, Negan likes his ladies to 'dress up'. Most of the clothes are skimpy, lingerie, or ball gowns". Michonne rolled her eyes and looked back in the closet. After flipping through Guess bikinis, and Versace dresses that looked more like shirts than dresses, Michonne found a long light blue ballgown that came down to her ankles. It was tight and backless and strapless, and she knew that if she wore this for Rick it wouldn't be on her for long.

_I guess this could pass as a night gown. As long as those nasty guards don't come in here._

Michonne draped the dress over her shoulder and looked at Sherry expectantly. "You want that one huh?" Sherry said smirking "It'll look real pretty on ya". Michonne rolled her eyes and stalked over to the door leading to the hallway.

When Sherry opened the door the guards were waiting outside to Michonne's dismay. She followed Sherry back to the shower room and she was pleased to realize she was already starting to recognize some landmarks in this place. When she started to see the white lines on the floor she knew the shower room was nearby.

"Do you want me to wait outside?" Sherry asked. Michonne nodded silently.

Michonne stepped into one of the showers. She turned the water on and adjusted the temperature so that it was steaming hot, almost hot to the point of pain. She then got under the jets fully clothed. As the hot water washed over her hair, skin and clothes she noticed the steady stream of red going down the drain. There was so much blood coming off of her she thought for a moment she had been injured and didn't realize it. She quickly checked her body and realized it was all Abraham's.

She suddenly felt weak and fell to her knees in the shower. Before she could do anything about it, body wracking sobs fell from her mouth. She was crying so hard that she couldn't move her hands to cover her mouth. She tried to quiet herself but it just resulted in her squealing every time she took a breath. After awhile she just didn't care and let it all out. She cried until she was exhausted, and then started to remove her clothes and wring them out into the shower drain before putting them to the side. She debated whether she should take her only pair of underwear off but she wanted it to be clean and dry for the next day, and she couldn't wear the same dirty pair for 3 days.

_Although that may keep that nasty SUV man away._

That thought made her smile.

She gathered up her wet clothing, tied up her wet locs so that they weren't dripping down her face, and then put the ballgown on her naked body. She looked at herself in the mirror and was stunned by how good she looked. Even with no makeup or shoes on the gown fit her to perfection. She was happy and dismayed at the same time. She wasn't trying to attract attention, but she had no towels to cover her curves. She sighed, that man would follow her around regardless of what she had on, so she was just gonna go with it. She put her boots back on and held her wet clothing in her arms as she made her way out of the shower room.

As promised, Sherry was waiting for her. Sherry's face told Michonne that she had heard her sobs. "Are you ok?" Sherry asked. Michonne nodded. "You look great by the way" Sherry added. Michonne nodded again. As Sherry turned to walk back to the women's quarters, the SUV man started getting uncomfortably close to Michonne. Michonne stopped and whirled around, sticking her finger in his face. "If you touch me I will kill you". Sherry and the other guard seemed shocked. The second guard said "Chill Rick, you know Negan doesn't want us spoiling the goods".

Michonne felt like she had been punched in the gut when she heard the man's name. _Why Rick?_

Without waiting, Michonne spun around again and walked off, causing Sherry to pick up the pace to catch up with her.

When they got back to the women's quarters Sherry showed Michonne to her own room. Michonne hung the wet clothes on a chair located in the room and sat on the bed.

It was amazing how since she had started sleeping next to Rick she became more and more dependent on him to go to sleep. She was so tired, and hadn't slept in 2 days, but she knew that without Rick holding her it would be nearly impossible for her to fall asleep.

She decided to just lay in bed and think about Rick, but her mind began to wander.

_I wonder what he's doing right now. I'm sure he's awake. Carl too. They're so much alike. There's no way he's sleeping without me. I wonder if they got Daryl to the doctor at Hilltop, if they didn't I think he might be dead now. And Maggie didn't look very good either, maybe there's something wrong with the baby? If so they definitely had to go to Hilltop. What did they do with Abraham's body? Did they bury him? Burn him? And oh God, Sasha. She's already lost so much. And my baby, Judith. Who is kissing her goodnight tonight? Carl my brave boy, I know he blames himself for everything, even things out of his control, just like Rick. Be strong please, both of my boys._

As Michonne felt the hot tears well up in her eyes again, she let the tears flow as she laid in bed. Just as she noticed the sun rising in the small window in her room, she cried herself to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Michonne woke up to the smell of coffee. She must've been smelling it for a while now because it seemed to penetrate the entire room she was in. Slowly she opened her eyes. She was facing the room's one small window. From the amount of light streaming through it, it seemed like late morning already. She could hear other people moving around outside of her door. She turned over on the bed to face the door and saw a cup of now cold coffee sitting on a table, and a plate with apple slices and a piece of toast with jelly. Next to the plate was a note. Michonne stretched out her arm to pick it up off the table.

_I would've woken you but I thought you might need the rest. If you wanna join us, we're in the kitchen. Sherry._

Michonne sat up from the bed and realized that she still had on the blue ball gown from the night before. It was hard for her to move around in it because of the tight fit. She reached over for her clothes and felt that they were still damp.

_Shit. I can't walk around in this dress all day._

She settled for putting her underwear back on at least. She then looked at the plate of food and realized she hadn't eaten for almost three days. The last food she'd had was a bite of an apple the morning she'd woken up with Rick. And now, looking at this plate of apple slices threatened to bring her to tears again.

_No. Get your shit together Michonne. You're not crying anymore. You have things to do._

She quickly devoured the apple slices and toast and drank down the cup of cold coffee. Now that she was fed, she could think a little more clearly.

_Ok. You're trapped in here with Negan's wives. Sherry seems harmless enough, but you still don't know what her story and motives are. Negan wants to talk to you, probably to find out more about Alexandria. He wants information he can use against Rick. All you have to do is survive here until he takes you back to Alexandria. You've dealt with worse._

Michonne got up from the bed and put her boots back on. She opened the bedroom door slowly and heard at least three voices coming from the area of the kitchen.

"Negan said they have walls and solar panels and stuff. They have their own houses too, like every family gets a whole house!"

"That's messed up, how are they livin' like that when we have to share? We should just move to that town. Take over."

"Well I heard they stole a lot of our weapons when they attacked that outpost. They may be armed to the teeth. We can't deal with anymore of our people dying. That's why that bitch is here, to keep everything nice and civil."

"How much longer you think she's gonna sleep? This isn't the fucking Four Seasons."

"I told you Negan already came in here asking for her, I told him she was still asleep. He said to let him know when she gets up"

"Sherry said she was crying last night. I kinda feel bad for her, she's gotta be scared"

Someone was yelling now. "SHE BETTER BE SCARED! HER PEOPLE STARTED ALL THIS! They freakin' stabbed our men in the head while they slept and stole our shit! I think Negan oughta give her the iron at least, to make an example. Dwight got that much for doing much less."

There was silence for a little bit.

"Ok, we've got things to do. I'm gonna go check on sleeping beauty and then start the cleaning rounds. Where's Sherry anyway?"

"I'm right here!" A voice suddenly yelled from down the hall behind Michonne. Michonne turned quickly and saw Sherry dressed with her same cut off shorts and this time, a pink bikini top with matching pink pumps. She had been so busy listening to the conversation that she hadn't heard Sherry coming down the hall. Sherry had to have seen Michonne eavesdropping, but she approached her with a smile. "Good mornin'" she said. "Hi" Michonne muttered. "Did you get the plate I left?". Michonne nodded. "Thank you".

Sherry smiled and continued walking towards the kitchen. Michonne followed her. As she walked into the room she saw three women in various states of undress sitting around a table drinking coffee.

"So she's up. Finally..." a woman with long waist length brown hair complained. She looked Michonne up and down, taking in her blue ball gown. She rolled her eyes at Michonne. "Get your beauty sleep?".

Michonne just stared.

"What's your name hun?" another woman with short curly black hair asked.

Michonne continued to look at the women in silence. The women seemed visibly uncomfortable.

"Does she talk?" the curly black haired woman asked Sherry.

Sherry just laughed. "Of course she does, but I guess she doesn't feel like talkin' to _you_."

Sherry turned towards Michonne and gestured for her to follow. As they walked into a hallway Sherry whispered "Negan asked me to bring you to him when you woke up. Are you ready?". Michonne didn't know quite how to answer that question so she ignored it. "I'm not leaving here in this dress, but my clothes are still wet". Sherry looked Michonne straight in the eyes. "I know Negan very well, and I know he appreciates a beautiful woman. If you want to have any influence on him, you'll leave that dress on. Believe me, it'll be safer that way".

Curiosity got the best of Michonne and she couldn't help but ask Sherry, "Why are you helping me?". Sherry smiled but Michonne could see anger burning in Sherry's eyes. "'Cuz I hate 'im more than you do".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne walked to the door leading out of the women's quarters and when it was opened she was relieved to see two new men had been sent to be her escorts. One of the men told her to turn around. As she slowly turned, a blindfold was placed on her face again. Each of the guards held her elbows as she was practically dragged to wherever Negan was meeting her. Wherever they were going was approximately a 5 minute walk from from the women's quarters.

Suddenly the guards stopped dragging her and she had the ability to stand up straight. She heard 3 loud knocks on a door, and then someone inside boomed "enter!". Michonne was led into the room and then the guards let go of her. She could hear someone else moving around not far away from her. "Leave" the person commanded, and she immediately recognized Negan's voice. She heard the two guards turn around and leave the room, and she listened as they unmistakenly locked the door behind them.

She could hear and feel Negan walking closer to her. He slowly circled her, coming so close she could feel the wind from his body blowing past her. She consciously tried to slow down her breathing, but her heart beat was out of control. With the blindfold on she was defenseless against any kind of attack.

"Shit you're hot" Negan whispered in her right ear. "That dress fits you in all the right ways. Like a fuckin' glove". Michonne didn't move a muscle. He waited a few seconds hoping she might say something. When she didn't, he chuckled.

"I thought your crazy, bloody, warrior samurai look was sexy, but damn you clean up well". Again, she didn't respond. She felt his hands in her hair as he untied the blindfold, and just like before it caused her to shudder. Once he took the blindfold off she had to blink to adjust to the light in the room. The first thing she noticed was the giant white shag rug on the floor. The four poster bed with the canopy, and a fireplace. This room seemed like the stereotypical bachelors pad from the 60's or 70's.

_Of course he'd have a bedroom like this. Of course._ She laughed to herself.

"I see my girls have been taking care of you" he said, walking around her to face her head on. "I've given you some food, a nice place to sleep, some fuckin' expensive clothes... and I don't even know your name." Michonne stayed quiet, staring Negan in the eyes just like she had the night before.

A full 30 seconds went by with no response from Michonne. Negan took a few steps back and sat in a lounge chair. He smiled and gestured to the chair across from himself. "Have a seat".

When she didn't move or respond, she could see him start to unravel a little. He leaped up and walked over to the side of his bed where his barbed wire baseball bat was propped against the wall. Michonne silently took note of where he kept his bat. He picked up Lucille and started to stroke the bat lovingly. Sickly, he hadn't washed it from the night before, and it was stained red with Abraham's blood, with pieces of flesh and hair stuck to it.

"You know, its only polite when someone invites you to their fuckin' house, and fuckin' takes care of you, to answer them WHEN THEY ASK YOU A FUCKIN' QUESTION!" Negan screamed. He began to pace in front of her.

Inside of her head, Michonne thought _invited me to his house? If invite means kidnapped_. But on the outside Michonne only stared.

"Especially when you and your boyfriend murdered the inviter's men in the most pussy way imaginable. I mean really, stabbing them while they sleep? I thought your group had more balls than that."

Negan seemed lost in thought for a second. Then, a smile formed on his face again and he stopped pacing. "But anyway, besides the fact that you're a hostage, I really brought you here because I'd like to get to know you better. How in the hell did a woman like you wind up with Rick? Your body is like a freakin' goddess, and you ain't scared of shit obviously. You should be one of my wives..."

Negan slowly stalked back over to Michonne, dragging Lucille on the wooden floor. He walked behind her and put his face next to her ear. "No, you should be my wife. I'd drop these other bitches in a second for you. Rick can't do half the stuff I could do to you. And the stuff I could give you, I know you saw the closet I have for my wives, It could all be yours. You'd be my freakin' queen."

He walked around and faced her again, coming so close to her she wanted to take a step back, but didn't. "I know this is sudden, and we barely know each other, but I feel a connection here, so I'm gonna put an offer on the table. You agree to stay here and be my wife, and I will leave your little town and your little friends alone. I won't take half their stuff, I won't block their roads so they can't go out on runs and they starve to death, I won't shoot the serial killer kid in the face. I won't do none of that. You be my wife, and they're safe. And one thing you'll learn about me, I keep my promises".


	5. Chapter 5

Michonne wished she was surprised about the offer Negan just gave her, but seeing how many wives he had, and the way he looked her up and down, she wasn't. What she was surprised about was that fact that he would drop all his _other_ wives for her.

The practical part of her mind started spinning, thinking of all the ways she could use this to her advantage. Use this as a way to save her family, a way to get them out of the bondage that working for Negan would surely put them in. She might even be able to get Negan to pay Alexandria in goods, as a price for her staying with him. Deep down she knew by the way he stared at her that he would pay it. And if she did it, her family would be safe. Maybe even prosperous.

But the emotional part of her mind was screaming in agony. No. She could never be able to live without Rick. Sure, she'd survive being Negan's wife, but she'd never be able to live. She had promised Rick a long time ago that she was done taking breaks, and she meant it. If she became Negan's wife she would have to take a whole vacation inside of herself just to get from day to day. She would have to go back to the monster she'd become after her son's death.

_But if it comes down to it, if it's the only way they get to live, you'd do it._

She knew she would. If Negan threatened Rick, or Carl, or Judith... she would do it for them.

Michonne snapped out of her reveries and realized Negan was still standing in front of her, staring. She composed herself and said her first words to him. "I'll think about it".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl sat in the church with those other Alexandrians who weren't currently on watch, for a town meeting. He, his father, and the others who had been in the forest that night had just gotten back from Hilltop where they took Maggie and Daryl to be treated by the doctor there. While Carl waited for the meeting to start, his mind involuntarily rolled back to the night before.

The ride to Hilltop was a blur for Carl. He didn't remember how he got into the RV or who was driving. He didn't remember any specific conversations or moments. All he remembered was the SUV with Michonne in the backseat disappearing into the darkness, and then he was in the RV pulling up to Hilltop. When Carl glanced up he saw his father who was sitting across from him. Rick was staring straight ahead with his mouth hanging slightly open. His eyes were empty, unfocused, he was staring straight through everyone and everything. Carl was concerned about the way Rick looked. It was the same look Rick had when he'd lost Lori, Carl's mother.

"Dad?" Carl tried. Rick didn't respond. "Dad!" Carl yelled louder. Rick slowly dragged his eyes over to Carl's face, but they stayed empty and unfocused. "She's coming back" Carl said. Rick continued staring.

Eugene and Glenn slowly carried Maggie in their homemade stretcher, out the RV doors towards the trailer where the doctor was. Aaron and Rosita were trying to drag Daryl who was now unconscious, but he was too heavy for the two of them. Carl got up and held Daryl's feet as Aaron and Rosita each held an arm. The only two living people left in the RV was a sobbing Sasha and a catatonic Rick, and laying on the bed in the back was the wrapped up body of Abraham.

The doctor at Hilltop said that Maggie had a serious uterine infection and he put her on antibiotics. He said she had to stay there so she and the baby could be monitored. Daryl had lost so much blood that the doctor wasn't sure he'd make it through the night. With no one knowing his blood type, and no blood donation equipment available anyway, all that could be done was to stitch him up, and give him antibiotics and pain medication.

Glenn and Aaron stayed at Hilltop to watch over Maggie and Daryl, as everyone else returned to Alexandria. On the ride home, Rick continued to stare blankly out the window. Carl sat next to his father and held his hand for the first time in years. Carl knew exactly what Rick was feeling. They had gone through this before when Lori died in childbirth, except this time it was worse. They didn't know what happened to Michonne. Whether she was still alive, if she was being hurt, tortured, or raped. They didn't even know where she was. They were helpless and completely useless to her.

As Carl sat on the hard church pew in Alexandria, he wondered what his father would say to everyone. How he would explain how much danger they were in, and what happened to Abraham, Michonne, Maggie and Daryl. How could he tell them they were now Negan's slaves, and no matter how hard they worked they were required to give half of everything to Negan? After the speech Rick gave just a few days ago convincing everyone to attack what they thought was Negan's one compound, how could he tell them that he made a mistake and put them all in danger?

Carl was suddenly starting to realize the heavy weight his father had to carry as leader of this group. He knew Michonne lightened that weight for Rick, but without her he was quickly being crushed.

It dawned on Carl that Rick should have been at the church by now. Most of the crowd was here and waiting impatiently. No one from the RV had explained anything to anyone, they had simply wandered out of the vehicle almost like walkers, and Rosita managed to mutter to someone at the gates "Gathering in 15 minutes". Abraham's body was even still in the RV.

Carl got up to look for his father. He left the church and started heading back towards their home, when he spotted Rick sitting under the veranda in the center of town. Carl cautiously approached his father and sat down next to him.

Rick had fresh tears on his face, but he seemed to be more present than he was in the RV.

"Dad?" Carl asked. Rick was still silent."Dad please..." Carl's voice broke as tears started to pour uncontrollably down his cheeks. "I... we need you. I can't... I can't do this by myself".

Rick turned his head and looked Carl in the eyes for the first time since the night before.

"I was so wrong. What we're up against... I don't know what to do... they have Michonne..." Now Rick's voice cracked. "They have her and I don't know where she is. I need her."

"I do too" Carl said.

Rick reached over and hugged Carl, tears freely flowing down both of their faces.

After they hugged, Carl and Rick walked back over to the church together. Before he opened the church doors, Rick stopped and took a deep breath. Carl patted Rick's right shoulder to comfort him, and then they entered.

Inside the church, everyone was talking. People seemed angry, anxious, scared, confused. As Rick made his way to the front there was a quick hush over everyone. Usually, Carl would sit in the front row and listen, but he knew that today his father needed his support. Carl stood behind Rick, just in case.

"When we left..." Rick's voice cracked and he tried again. "When we left here to get Maggie to Hilltop, we ran into the Saviors on the road. They had blocked the road to Hilltop. We thought it was a small group of them so we tried another road and another. Each road was blocked by a larger and larger group of them. They cut down huge trees and set them on fire to block the road. They hung a man in front of us to send us a message. They chained... they chained walkers across the road..." Rick paused and breathed. The vision of Michonne's hair stuck to that walker almost made him lose it.

"They were playing with us. They had us surrounded from the beginning. We tried to walk to Hilltop with Maggie, but they herded us exactly where they wanted us. When they finally surrounded us... they had been holding Daryl, Rosita, Michonne, and Glenn hostage. Negan was there, and he said he would kill one of us to send a message. He sang eenie, meenie, miney, mo to pick which one of us he would beat to death."

Someone in the church gasped. Everyone else was silent.

"He smashed Abraham's head in with a bat. And he took..." Rick was outright sobbing now. "He took Michonne, as insurance that we wouldn't attack him. He said he would be back here in three days to collect half of our supplies".

No one spoke as everything Rick said sunk into their heads. After a minute of silence, Father Gabriel, who was holding Judith, was the first to speak.

"Rick. What do you want us to do? What should we prepare? I'll get started on it immediately"

Rick who was now looking at the ground, slowly brought his eyes back up again. He paused for a few seconds before he spoke.

"Nothing... we're going to do nothing."


	6. Chapter 6

Her answer seemed to satisfy Negan for the moment. He grinned a little, but took a step back. "Well now that we got the pleasantries out of the way... let's talk business". He walked back to the lounge chair and sat down, resting Lucille against his leg. "Would you sit down please?" He asked.

Michonne cautiously walked towards the chair and slowly sat, Negan's eyes following her every move.

"Why did your people start attacking my men?" Negan asked.

Michonne looked Negan in the eyes."Your men tried to rob and kill my people on the road".

Negan was quiet for a moment.

"How did you know where my outpost was?"

Michonne was silent. She wasn't going to tell Negan that people from the Hilltop had told them where Negan's men were, and they had even helped kill some of Negan's men.

"Were your people following my men?"

Again she was silent.

Negan slowly reached for his bat, and brought it up, pointing it in Michonne's face. Michonne's eye contact with Negan never wavered. After a few seconds he dropped the bat and gave her a big smile.

"Woman, you'll be the death of me. You don't give a flying fuck do you? You just make me want you even more...". He sighed.

"Go ahead back to the women's quarters"

Michonne stayed in her seat.

"Go...please?" Negan asked.

Michonne slowly rose from her seat. Negan chuckled.

"Guards!" Negan yelled, and Michonne could hear the door unlocking. As she and Negan waited for the guards to take her away, she could see him running his eyes up and down her body. As the guards put the blindfold back over her head, and dragged her out of the room, she could hear Negan mutter "Fuckin' hot!" behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What do you mean we're doing nothing?" Tobin asked from his seat. "You just said they held four of our people hostage and smashed another's head in with a baseball bat. How are we doing nothing?"

"There were at least 50 men out there last night, and we don't know if there are more. They are highly organized and stocked with weapons. There's no way we'd survive an altercation with them. We're not going to have one" Rick said. "You weren't there. You didn't see what they could do. We didn't have a chance".

"Is this the same Rick that told us we could beat Negan a few days ago? We believed you. We've been through worse than this, we can plan something and win." Holly said.

"No!" Rick growled, and the ferocity of his voice shocked everyone. "They have my wi... they have Michonne. And I won't do anything that will put her in danger. When Negan gets here, we're going to give him half our supplies, and we're going to survive. We will have to go on runs every day to get enough for us and the Saviors, but we'll survive. And we can live in peace."

"Or live as slaves" someone chimed in. Other people started mumbling amongst themselves.

"My dad is right!" Carl yelled, and everyone quieted down. "You didn't come with us last night. Negan could've killed more of us if he wanted to, and there was nothing we could've done. He has Michonne and if we cooperate he'll give her back. Fighting him right now doesn't make sense. We don't even know how many people he has".

Rick looked at Carl and nodded in thanks.

"We're not doing anything until Michonne is back" Rick stated "And if you have a problem with that, you can leave now".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After the meeting in the church, Rick, Carl, and Eugene went over to the graveyard to start digging Abraham's grave. There was a silence between the three of them, and the only sound heard was the scratching of the shovels and the shower of dirt as it slid down the mound being formed.

After some time Eugene said "Rick, I just want to say that none of us who were in the RV that night blame you for what happened. You did the very best any man could've done, and you got as many of us out of there alive as you could. There was no way we could've predicted the sheer numbers that they had, and I just want to say... thank you."

Rick stopped shoveling and looked at Eugene for a second. He then nodded his head.

"Also, I wanted to let you know that I am ready to start with the manufacturing of bullets. And with your permission, I can start tomorrow, unless you think we should wait until this thing with Negan is settled".

Carl was now staring at Eugene with great interest, and Rick looked very thoughtful.

"If you can, start today" Rick responded. "We're gonna need all the bullets we can get".

Eugene nodded, and the three of them continued shoveling.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

During Abraham's funeral no one said much. Father Gabriel read a few scriptures and prayed over Abraham's body. Rick, Eugene, Carl, and Tobin helped lower Abraham's body into the ground with as much dignity as possible. Sasha and Rosita stood next to each other with tears running down both of their faces. After a few minutes of silence, the crowd started to disperse, and Rick, Eugene, Carl, Tobin, and Father Gabriel began to shovel dirt to cover up the grave. The two women watched on in silence, and Rosita reached out slowly and held Sasha's hand. The gesture seemed to jolt Sasha out of her sorrow as she looked at Rosita in amazement. Rosita just stared straight ahead, watching the men work.

"I didn't mean to hurt you" Sasha whispered. "We didn't. It... it just happened... us. But nothing happened while you two were together... I promise. I... we wouldn't do that."

Rosita just nodded. "I know". She paused for a little while. "I know he loved you. I could see the way he looked at you. He never looked at me like that". Sasha looked at Rosita apologetically. "I'm so sorry" was all she said. Rosita turned and hugged Sasha. Sasha hugged back.

Finally, the men finished covering Abraham's body. Carl took the cross he had made and stuck it on top of the grave. Eugene reached into his pocket and pulled out Abraham's dog tags, wrapping them around the cross. Everyone paused for a few minutes, and then if on cue, they wandered off in different directions towards their homes.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Michonne got back to the women's quarters, the only person there was the woman with the long brown hair who was sitting on a chair in the kitchen reading a book. She scowled from her seat as Michonne walked past her and entered her bedroom. She closed the door behind her, noticing there was no lock on the door.

Michonne sat on the bed and let out a long breath she hadn't realized she was holding. She didn't know what to think about the interaction she had with Negan. She thought it had gone fairly well, she had learned a lot in a matter of minutes.

_He obviously doesn't know we were working with Hilltop. At least not yet. He doesn't have much of an emotional attachment to his wives, and based on what Sherry said, his wives don't either. He's attracted to me enough to make deals against his interests, but he didn't force himself on me so he has to have some kind of code of ethics. And, he learns quickly. He learned that ordering me around doesn't work, so he started to ask. He also learned that she wasn't scared of him... at least outwardly. He did make her nervous with his mood changes._

She reached out and touched her clothes. They seemed dry enough now, so she carefully peeled off the ball gown and put on her jeans and shirt, feeling much more comfortable now.

A few minutes later she heard a soft knock on the door. Michonne got up and cautiously opened it and saw the face of Sherry. "Hi" she said. "Can I come in?". Michonne opened the door wider, letting Sherry in. Sherry closed the door behind her and stood a little awkwardly in front of the door.

"I... I just wanted to see how you were doin'. Y'know, after talkin' to him".

"I'm fine" Michonne replied. There were a few seconds of silence, and then Michonne asked "Why are you with him? Why are you his wife?"

Sherry smiled a little and then pointed at the chair in the room. "Can I sit down?". Michonne nodded.

"His men found me, with my boyfriend Dwight. They forced us to work for Negan, to go on runs and bring things back, to go to other communities and intimidate them so that they would pay tribute to Negan. The more runs and "services" that we did, the more points we got. That's how things run here. The more points you get, the more food and luxuries you're entitled to. Beds, warm showers, food... sex".

"We were working our way up, when Dwight made a mistake. On a run he found a ring... like an engagement ring. He wanted to give it to me, so he put it in his pocket. That's against the rules. Everything belongs to Negan until it's distributed out based on points. When Negan found out Dwight stole from him, he was gonna beat him to death with Lucille..." Sherry swallowed like she was holding back tears.

"I begged Negan not to kill Dwight. I offered myself and my full loyalty to him as his wife if he wouldn't kill him. Negan agreed, but he gave Dwight the iron instead, so everyone would know that he stole from him". Sherry must've noticed the confused look on Michonne's face, so she explained. "He takes an iron and burns the side of someone's face. It practically melts the skin off".

Those words jogged Michonne's memory. She remembered one of the men who kidnapped them, the one who shot Daryl, had a large burn on the side of his face. She jumped up off the bed she was sitting on.

"Your boyfriend kidnapped me, and shot my friend!" Michonne yelled, pointing in Sherry's face. Sherry looked terrified. "He... he only works for Negan because he has to. He's just tryin' to survive like we all are. He hates Negan as much as I do. Negan burned his face off!"

Michonne backed away from Sherry a little but she still stood in front of her. "It seems like he's doing more than just trying to survive. He seems to want to get in Negan's good graces."

Sherry looked at Michonne nervously and just shrugged. "I don't know what he's tryin' to do nowadays. I'm not allowed to talk to him. If he's seen talkin' to me he'll definitely be killed. Negan is very strict when it comes to his wives". Michonne started pacing slowly, so Sherry nervously continued. "We are given a lot, we have first pick of the clothes and luxuries that come in here. The point system doesn't apply to us. We are free to go where we please within' reason. But we also have rules too. He makes us wear skimpy outfits because he likes to look at us. He has sex with us whenever he wants to. And we can't cheat on him." Michonne continued to pace, so Sherry continued to talk. "Every night he comes in here and picks one, or two... or three of us dependin' on his mood, to take back to his room. It's pretty much demeanin', but for some of the wives it's better than earnin' points or runnin' around outside with dead ones".

Michonne finally stopped pacing, but she still didn't sit. "Why do you stay?" she asked softly.

"I don't got nowhere else to go" Sherry responded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Sherry left her room, Michonne spent the rest of the afternoon pondering her situation. She got the feeling that Negan was true to his word, and if her family cooperated with him and gave over half their supplies, he would return her to them. But, she also knew that he wanted her for himself, and he may manipulate the situation to get what he wanted. She let her mind drift back to Rick and the kids, wondering what they were doing, wondering if they were missing her as much as she missed them. As the sun began to set, she heard the door to the women's quarters open and a man's voice boom "Negan has returned!".

Within seconds, she heard the doors to the other bedrooms fling open and she heard the patter of bare feet and the click of heels as women started running towards the living room. Michonne was alarmed.  _What is going on?_

As she did earlier in the morning, she slowly opened the door to her bedroom to listen. She could hear small thumps that sounded like people dropping to their knees.

After a few seconds of silence she could hear Negan's voice. "Hey babes" he crooned. "Hey Negan" she heard a chorus of women's voices respond. Michonne rolled her eyes in disgust. She could hear him pacing up and down in the living room.  _Probably looking over his merchandise_  she thought.

There was a pause and then Negan asked "Where's the black chick?". Michonne heard Sherry speak up "She's probably in her room Negan".

"Go get her" he said. She heard Sherry's heels clicking quickly as she jogged over to Michonne's room. Sherry pushed open the door and knew Michonne had heard the whole thing. She simply said "He wants you".

Michonne breathed out a silent breath and walked into the living room with Sherry behind her. The scene was crazy. Negan and two of his guards were standing in the middle of the room. There was a line of women, ten in all, kneeling in front of him. Some of them had on the skimpiest lingerie Michonne had ever seen. Other's were more clothed but the clothing was all skin tight.

"Hi honey!" he greeted her. She returned his greeting with a scowl. Negan, totally oblivious, went back to pacing.

"Hmm... what am I in the mood for tonight? A little Asian dumplings?" he asked, winking at an asian woman who gave him a shy smile. "A little country fried chicken?" he asked, licking his lips while looking down Sherry's bikini top. He stopped when he stood in front of Michonne.

"Or a little chocolate pudding?" he asked, staring into Michonne's eyes. Michonne once again matched his stare. "My offer's still on the table y'know?" he whispered. Michonne kept staring.

Negan smiled and spun around. "Oh well, I guess I'll go with the country fried chicken for now, but I'm gonna be craving pudding  _all_  night" he said, winking at Michonne.

As Sherry stood up and followed Negan out, she glanced at Michonne with a faraway look on her face, as if she had already left her body to be somewhere else. Michonne felt sorry for her.

As the men left with Sherry, all the other women got up from their spots on the floor, either giving Michonne looks of jealousy, curiosity, or anger as they made their way back to their bedrooms.

Michonne went back to her bedroom as well. She was mentally and physically exhausted. She laid in the bed, grateful that she had survived one day in captivity. Just as she began to drift off to sleep her door swung open, causing her to leap out of bed. It was the woman with the long brown hair.

"One of the guards are waiting for you at the door. He says _Negan_ wants you" she sneered, not bothering to hide her dislike of Michonne.

Michonne didn't know what to think. She knew this wasn't good. She left her room and walked to the doors of the women's quarters as slowly as she could. As she opened the door her heart sank. The guard from the SUV, Rick, was outside waiting for her. "Hey sweetness" he sang, as he wrapped a blindfold around her face.

 


	7. Chapter 7

After blindfolding her, the guard, Rick, wrapped wire around her wrists. Michonne knew something wasn't right. Every time she had been taken out of the women's quarters there had been  _two_  guards. Now, this man was escorting her somewhere by himself, blindfolded and bound, in the middle of the night?

Every hair on Michonne's body stood on end as Rick grabbed her arm and led her down the hallway. "Where are you taking me?" she asked. "Just shut up" he mumbled. "That woman said  _you_  said Negan wanted me" she demanded. "I  _said_  shut up" he snapped.

They walked for a few more minutes. Michonne couldn't hear anything but their footsteps on the floor. Although she couldn't see where they were going, she was sure they had walked longer than they had the first time she went to see Negan.

Michonne suddenly stopped walking. "Move!" the man demanded. "Not until you tell me where we're going" Michonne replied. Suddenly, she felt hands tightening around her neck. Michonne was caught by surprise. The man slammed her against the hallway wall, and she could hear him fumbling to open a door. She tried to yell "get off of me" but the man's grip was surprisingly strong, she couldn't get any air.

Michonne flailed her legs randomly trying to figure out where the man's body was so she could kick him. One of her legs connected with his knee and she heard him yelp. He suddenly let go of her neck and she collapsed on the floor gasping for air. She could still hear him fumbling with a door and it suddenly swung open. She tried to crawl away but it was difficult with her hands still tied.

She felt him grab her foot and drag her out of the hallway into another room. She could tell this room was very small, more like a closet or storage area. She kicked at him with her other foot but with the blindfold on she was only hitting air.

"Stop struggling and this will go better for the both of us" he muttered. She kept kicking at him and she connected with another body part. She couldn't tell what it was and he yelped again, but this time he didn't let her go.

Michonne was scared. She couldn't see anything, she didn't have use of her hands, and this man was much bigger than her. She had fought men before, usually with her katana, but this man was bigger than the Governor. She was desperate.

She turned her head towards her shoulder and tried to rub the blindfold off her face. He saw what she was doing and quickly leaped on top of her practically body slamming her to the floor. This man must've had 100 pounds on her and his full weight landing on top of her knocked the air out of her lungs. She wasn't sure, but she might've broken a rib.

Michonne gasped but her lungs weren't expanding. She knew if she didn't breathe she would pass out soon. She could feel the man's hand fumbling with the buttons on her jeans, but with him laying on top of her she now knew where his body parts were. With everything she had she jerked her head forward, headbutting Rick in the face. "Ahhh! stupid bitch!" he screamed, back handing her across the face. The shock of him hitting her so hard caused her to gasp and precious air filled her lungs. She stopped struggling for a few seconds so she could breathe.

Rick took the fact that she had stopped struggling as an indication that he'd won. He got the top button of her jeans open and pulled the zipper down. "I knew you wanted this from the time you got in that car" he laughed. She could hear him unzipping his pants. She still didn't move. In her head she counted  _one, two, three_. On three she took her bound hands and punched towards Rick's crotch as hard as she could. She connected with it head on.

"Ahhhh!" he screamed "Oh shit!". She used the distraction to finish rubbing the blindfold off her eyes. He was straddling her, holding on to his crotch. He was too busy moaning in pain to realize she took the blindfold off. She rotated her head and saw a metal bucket on the floor behind her. She tried to wiggle out from under the man who was sitting on top of her, stretching her fingers as far as they could go to hook them onto the bucket handle.

At the same time that she hooked her fingers around the bucket and swung it on a course towards Rick's head, he decked her in the face, knocking her out cold.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Rick and Carl got home from Abraham's funeral, both of them were too exhausted to do anything. They both immediately went to their bedrooms. Rick couldn't put into words the sorrow he felt glancing at the bed he and Michonne had shared and it being empty. He had tried to sleep on her side of the bed, trying to catch a whiff of the cocoa butter she always put on her skin. He had bunched up the pillows as if it were her and wrapped his arms around it, but no matter what he did he couldn't forget her absence. He eventually gave up on sleeping, and was grateful when Judith woke up at 4 a.m. so he had someone to keep him company through the rest of the night.

The morning after Abraham's funeral was busy. Many Alexandrians were leaving to go on runs to bring back enough supplies to appease Negan. Eugene, Rosita, and Spencer went to the factory to start preparing for bullet production. Carl and Rick were going on a run to check some office buildings a few miles away to see what they could find. Before Rick left with Carl, he went to look for Sasha who was doing guard duty on the wall.

"Sasha can I talk to you for a minute?" Rick asked. Sasha climbed down the ladder with a surprised look on her face. Rick started "I know Negan took a lot from you. He took a lot from us. I was wondering how you felt about the decision not to fight back".

Sasha's eyes looked towards the floor as she thought. "I understand it... he has Michonne, I get it. But he has to pay. We have to be careful, but he has to pay".

Rick nodded. "Sasha. When Negan gets here, I need you to do something for me".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The first thing Michonne could sense was movement. There was someone walking around in the room with her. She wasn't fully awake, but she could tell something was wrong with her face. It felt numb... swollen. She decided to check out the rest of her body. She wiggled her toes, check. She could move her legs, check. Her fingers and wrists were working, check.  _Plus, I'm not bound anymore_  she thought. She tried opening her eyes and realized one of her eyes wouldn't open. She tried again. Her eye was swollen shut. Not just her eye, but the whole right side of her face was swollen. She reached up to touch her face and felt a sharp pain in her side, so painful she cried out.

"I wouldn't move" a voice said "You have a broken rib". Michonne turned her head and tried to focus on whoever was talking but her vision was blurry. "You also have a concussion and a black eye". Her head hurt so bad it brought tears to her eyes.

"I gave you some pain medication, but it's not enough to combat all of that. You're gonna be in pain for a while. My name is Winston, I'm a nurse"

Michonne closed her eye. Trying to focus her eye on this man made her head spin.

"So what happened to you?" The man asked.

_What did happen to me?_  Michonne thought to herself. The last thing she remembered was swinging a bucket at that man, Rick. Vomit started to rise in her throat.

_Did he... Oh my God... did he?_

Michonne started to shake. She didn't want to ask, but she had to know.

"Did he... rape me?" she whispered.

"No. I don't think so" Winston said. "We found him collapsed on top of you, both of you were unconscious. You put a good gash in his head with that bucket".

The relief flooded through Michonne. Tears started spilling from her one good eye, making it even harder to see.

"Did he take you from the women's quarters?" Winston asked. Michonne nodded. "Where was he taking you?"

"I don't know" Michonne whispered. Her voice was hoarse and scratchy. "He said Negan wanted me".

"Well I don't think Negan will appreciate that. Negan doesn't approve of rapists and woman beaters, especially ones that lie about getting orders from him. I'm pretty sure Rick is gonna die tonight".

Michonne nodded her head. "Good"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne slept through most of the morning and afternoon in the infirmary. She was exhausted anyway, but with the painkillers she was being given, it was nearly impossible for her to stay awake. The nurse, Winston, woke her up once or twice to make her drink water or eat a few crackers, but within minutes she was asleep again.

_Michonne was running through the forest with her katana, slicing up Walkers as she ran. She was running from something, but she didn't know what. Suddenly she tripped, and fell in a ditch. She was alone down there in the dark, and suddenly she wasn't. Rick was lying next to her. Her Rick. "I've missed you" he whispered. "I love you" she whispered back. Suddenly they were kissing in their bed, in their home. Their hands were exploring each other's bodies. She reached up and cupped Rick's face, pulling her head back a little, wanting to look into his blue eyes again, but they weren't blue. They were brown, and scowling at her. It wasn't her Rick anymore. It was him._

Michonne jolted out of her dream so violently she injured her ribs again, causing excrutiating pain. Winston, hearing her scream, rushed back into the room. "Bad dream?" he asked. She nodded. "You wanna talk about it?". She just shook her head.

"I'm sorry about what happened to you, but I have some news that might make you feel a little better. Negan stopped by while you were sleeping and said to tell you that he's gonna beat Rick's head in with Lucille tonight... for you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick and Carl's run to the office buildings wasn't very productive. They managed to get a few containers of instant coffee, some boxes of sugar and artificial sweeteners, boxes of stale cookies that looked like they were old even before the apocalypse, random pens and pencils, lots of wire from the computers in the building, and coffee mugs, lots of coffee mugs.

As they unloaded the car, Rick could hear a vehicle pulling up outside of the gates. His brain immediately went into high alert, and he looked towards the guards at the gate. They gave the all clear signal and the gates started to open. Rick watched an unfamiliar car pull up, but he was immediately relieved when he saw it was Aaron and Jesus, coming back from Hilltop.

Rick ran up to the car to meet them. "How's Maggie and Daryl?" he asked before they could even fully get out of the car. Aaron smiled. "Maggie is doing a little better. She's still on antibiotics, but the baby's heartbeat is strong and it seems to be doing fine". His smile dropped a little. "Daryl is still hanging on, but he's still unconscious. The doctor is concerned about brain damage from the blood loss, but he says it's still too early to tell".

Rick nodded, trying to swallow back tears. Daryl was his brother. He had saved Rick's life on many occasions, and now, when Daryl needed him, Rick couldn't be there.

Jesus walked over to Rick. "The people at Hilltop heard about what Negan did to your people. They're terrified. But there are a few who are willing to help if you're planning something. They see that Negan is becoming more and more demanding. Eventually we won't be able to keep up with his demands and we'll have nothing left".

"How many?" Rick asked. "From who I've talked to maybe 30. But if you start training them, you may get more" Jesus said.

Rick glanced over at Aaron who seemed to preoccupied. "Aaron it's ok, I know you need to see Eric. Thank you for giving me the update". Aaron nodded and quickly ran off to find his boyfriend. Rick turned back to Jesus.

"You know that Negan has Michonne?" Rick asked. Jesus nodded. "I told my people that we weren't going to fight back, that we were going to give Negan half of everything, and we are. Negan will be here tomorrow, and if he gives me back Michonne, I will let him drive out of here with half of everything we've gathered". Rick moved closer to Jesus and started to whisper "But I need you to follow him and find out where his base is".


	8. Chapter 8

"People are gathering now" Winston told Michonne. "You sure you're ready to do this?". Michonne nodded. There was no way she wasn't going. He carefully helped her to sit up. The new position made her head start spinning again, she figured that was from the concussion. She could already feel the pressure on her rib cage. "This is gonna hurt like hell" he warned. She nodded again. He gripped her under her arms and helped her off the bed. The movement sent a wave of pain through her side. She sucked in a breath and bit her lip as he helped her into a wheelchair.

"I'm probably supposed to put a blindfold on you, but with what you've just gone through, I think I'll conveniently forget". His comment made her smile for the first time in days. "Thank you" she whispered, her voice still hoarse.

He rolled her out of the infirmary and down a winding series of hallways. She noticed the lines on the floor were blue in this part of the factory. They eventually reached a huge open room. It was the same room she was in when she first got here. There were passageways and walkways and stairs leading in all directions. This must've been the factory floor of some packing or canning company.

There were people everywhere, waiting. The crowd stood in a large circle with a big empty space in the middle. She noticed someone had put down a tarp in the center of the floor. As Winston rolled her through the crowd she noticed the stares and gasps as people noticed her face. She thought about moving her hair to cover her swollen black eye, but then figured there was no point. She was going home tomorrow and she'd never see these people again.

Michonne ignored the looks as Winston finally stopped the wheelchair close to the center of the circle. Suddenly, she saw Sherry quickly making her way over. Sherry's mouth dropped open when she saw Michonne's swollen face, but she quickly composed herself and reached out for Michonne's hand. "Are you ok?" she asked, and Michonne knew she didn't mean physically. Michonne nodded. "Are you?" she asked. Sherry nodded.

A few seconds later, a door opened, and Michonne heard the now familiar words "Negan has returned!". As expected, everyone dropped to their knees. Negan sauntered into the room, balancing Lucille on his shoulders. Behind him, two guards dragged Rick the Savior. Michonne could see the huge gash he had on his head from the bucket she threw at him, but he also looked like he had been badly beaten. Negan stopped in the middle of the circle, standing on the tarp. The guards dragged Rick in front of Negan and unceremoniously dropped him on the tarp in a heap.

Negan looked around at the kneeling people and immediately spotted Michonne in the wheelchair. He gave her a smile and a wink. He then nodded to the crowd and said "As you were". Everyone picked themselves up off the floor except for Rick, who was on all fours.

"What you're about to see is going to be unpleasant. It doesn't even have to happen, fuckin' hell I wish it wouldn't happen. But this is what happens when you don't. Follow. The rules. And why do we follow the rules?" Negan said as if he were speaking to children.

"The rules keep us alive" the crowd answered in unison.

"Yes, they keep us alive. Now Rick here, decided that the rules weren't for him. He thought he was gonna take his dick, and stick it in pussies that didn't belong to him". Negan started to slowly circle Rick who was cowering on the ground.

"He thought  _he_  was gonna fuck a woman who  _I_  had to fucking restrain myself not to fuck" Negan spat, grabbing Rick by his shirt and lifting his face so that they were eye to eye. "And that woman knocked him the fuck  _out_ ".

Negan dropped Rick back on the floor with a thud. "Lucille doesn't like lame, pussy ass rapists, and neither do I". And with that, Negan raised Lucille and smashed it into Rick's head with a crack. The crowd was deathly silent as the bat met its target again and again and again. The only sound was the cracking of skull and the grunts from Negan as he swung. After 7 or 8 hits, Negan was finished.

He addressed the crowd cheerily. "And now, back to work!". Michonne was shocked with how quickly and calmly the crowd turned around and resumed their work. Conversations continued, lives moved on. Two men picked up the remains of Rick and quickly wrapped him up in the tarp and dragged him off.

Negan gave his bat to a man with a towel who vigorously rubbed the blood off of it, while he sauntered over to Michonne, Sherry, and Winston. "How are you feeling my dear?" Negan asked Michonne. She paused for a while, wondering if she should answer. "Peachy" she managed to say. He laughed for a while.

He then looked at Sherry and Winston, "leave us" he said and they both took a few steps away to give them privacy.

"So tomorrow, if your boyfriend did what he's supposed to do and has my supplies ready, you'll be going back." Michonne just looked, so Negan continued. "Unless... you've changed your mind and decided to take me up on my little offer".

Michonne rolled her eyes... well, her eye. "After what just happened, believe me, I'm ready to leave".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning Winston gave Michonne one more dose of painkillers for the road. "These will wear off by noon, but maybe your people have some more?" She wasn't sure if they did, but if they didn't she would make it through. "I want to thank you, for taking care of me. You didn't have to". She said to Winston. He smiled and nodded his head. He helped her into the wheelchair and pushed her out into the hallway.

Sherry was waiting outside of the infirmary. The first thing Michonne noticed was her katana in Sherry's hand. "Where did you get that?" Michonne asked in shock. "They were gonna keep it, assign it points, and let one of Negan's high ranking men have it." Sherry smiled "But I got it back for you. Being one of Negan's wives has it's advantages". Michonne struggled to get out of the wheelchair. Even though it was painful, she stood up to give Sherry a hug. Sherry held on to the katana as Winston pushed Michonne outside to one of the many waiting cars.

Without her blindfold on, Michonne could see at least 10 cars that were leaving for Alexandria. Michonne was concerned. That could mean at least 50 men or more were going on this trip. Why did they need so much back up? Were they anticipating a fight?

As Winston pushed her wheelchair up to an SUV, Sherry put her katana in the trunk of the car. A guard then put a blindfold around her eyes, but didn't bind her hands. Although Winston tried to help her into the backseat gently, her ribs were in pain as she slid into the middle seat. She felt Winston reach over and click her seatbelt. He then patted her hand. "Thank you" she said again. "Be safe" he replied. Michonne could hear and feel two men get into the car on either side of her. A third got into the drivers side. Someone else got into the front passenger's side. As the engine turned on and the car started to move, Michonne could hear Negan's voice say from the passenger's side "Lets go get my shit!".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Rick and all the other Alexandrians were on high alert. This was the day Negan said he would come back with Michonne to pick up his supplies. Although they were all on orders to stand down, they were still heavily armed. Rick took all the weapons that had been stolen from the Saviors and placed them in a truck with the other supplies to be given to Negan. He had as many people on wall duty as possible so that the walls could be monitored from every angle. The children were all taken to the church and kept there, just in case.

Rick's emotions were all over the place. He was ecstatic that he would see the love of his life again, he was angry that the supplies were being taken from his community, he was nervous that he would do something wrong and someone would pay with their life again, and he was frustrated that Negan wasn't dead yet.

He started on his third consecutive walk around the walls when someone yelled "cars!". Rick's heartbeat thundered as he ran up to the front gate. Five cars had pulled up. As men started hopping out of the cars, Rick immediately spotted Negan. Negan sauntered up to the gates which were still closed, and slid Lucille across the bars, creating a loud clanging sound.

"Oh Riiiicky boy. Let me innnnnn" Negan sang.

Rick gave the signal and the gates were opened.

"Where's Michonne!" Rick yelled, as Negan strolled into Alexandria with some of his men behind him.

"Who?" Negan asked "Is  _that_  her name? Y'know she wouldn't tell me when  _I_  asked. I should've guessed it was something French and sexy like that.  _Michonne_. I like the way it rolls off my tongue".

"Where. Is. She?" Rick demanded, barely restraining himself from leaping at Negan's throat.

"Mmm... she's around. But we'll get to that after I get a tour, and I get my shit." Negan said dismissively.

"You'll get your tour after I get Michonne" Rick growled.

Negan stopped for a moment and then smiled. "Okay, you've been a good boy Rick. I guess I can give you some dessert before you eat your dinner. But before that happens, you and all your people need to take off your weapons and kneel"

Rick paused for only a moment before taking out his gun and handing it to one of Negan's soldiers. He then got on his knees. Everyone else followed suit, not knowing what to expect.

Negan shouted "Bring her out!". He then turned to Rick and said "Before you turn into a crazy man, just know that the man who did this is dead now".

Rick didn't know what Negan was talking about, nor did he care. He could see two men on either side of Michonne, escorting her through the gates. He was so relieved that she was alive he didn't immediately pick up on the fact that she seemed to have some trouble standing up straight. Her katana was strapped to her back, and as she got closer he noticed she was holding her side and was a little shaky when she walked. She had a blindfold on that covered most of her face, but he immediately noticed her lip on the right side seemed swollen.

As it dawned on Rick that she was hurt, he flew into an uncontrollable rage. Before anyone could stop him he tackled Negan, kneeing him in the stomach and punching him in the face. "What did you do to her?" Rick screamed. Negan's men seemed temporarily stunned, but they quickly recovered, raising their weapons to shoot Rick. "Stop!" Negan yelled to his men. "He's mine!".

Negan wrapped his hands around Rick's neck, choking him. "You think I'm gonna let you beat me in front of my men? Have you lost your fucking mind?". Rick quickly head butted Negan to break his hold, and punched Negan in the face again. Negan quickly moved behind Rick and put him in a chokehold. "Now I'm really fucking pissed off" Negan spat. Rick responded by biting into Negan's arm, drawing blood.

"God fucking damn it!" Negan yelled, letting go of Rick "Did you just fucking bite me? What the fuck!"

"What did you do to her?" Rick yelled again.

Negan tried to regain control of the situation. "Let's all just take a fucking breath and calm the fuck down. I know this is an emotional moment, but if you ever fucking bite me again, I will knock all your teeth out."

"Rick..." Michonne said hoarsely. She still had her blindfold on and couldn't see, but she held her arms out in the air waiting for him.

Ignoring anyone and anything else, Rick ran to Michonne and wrapped his arms around her, bracing himself to pick her up until she sucked in her breath in pain. He realized he had hurt her and he reluctantly stopped squeezing her so hard. Forgetting all about the armed men around him, he tore the blindfold off her face and was shocked by her swollen face and black eye.

Michonne knew Rick was about to go off the deep end again and she put her fingers on his lips. "Negan didn't do this. The man who did this is dead." She ran her fingers down his face, staring into those beautiful blue eyes. "I've missed you baby" she whispered.

"I love you" he whispered back. He leaned down and kissed her lips gently, trying to avoid the right side of her face.

"Hey!" Negan yelled. "Sorry to interrupt the fucking romance novel, but we have a fucking deal. You got  _Michonne_  back. Where's my shit?"

Rick nodded at Spencer who got off his knees and walked towards Negan. "I'll take you on a tour of our community". "Good" said Negan, "finally some motherfucking service".

As Spencer, Negan, and some of his men walked off on a tour, the rest of Negan's men kept watch over the remaining Alexandrians who were allowed to get off their knees, but they had to keep their weapons on the ground.

Finally together, Rick and Michonne were in their own world, holding hands and gazing into each other's eyes. "Are you ok?" Rick asked her. "Yes. I'm ok because I'm with you now" she responded. She was so happy just to be home. "How is Carl and Judith?" Michonne asked. "They're fine. Judith is in the church with the other kids, and Carl... he's doing something for me..." Rick replied evasively. Michonne immediately caught on that he was hiding something, but she didn't ask about it. He paused as if he was unsure if he wanted to continue, and then he asked "Michonne, what did they do to you?". She put her hand on Rick's chest "It doesn't matter right now. I'll tell you later ok?" he nodded. She reached up, ignoring the pain in her side, and rubbed her fingers through Rick's hair. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. Slowly he moved his lips closer to hers until they kissed.

In a few minutes, Negan, Spencer, and the rest of Negan's men returned from their tour. Negan seemed happy. "This place is amazing, wow! You people live like fucking kings. I may have to set up an office in one of these houses..." Negan glanced over at Rick and Michonne still holding hands. "Then I can visit  _Michonne_  more often."

Michonne felt Rick's muscles tighten and she gently rubbed his hand. Negan smiled, and then looked around. "Ok, so where's my shit?". Rick, supporting Michonne as she walked, lead Negan and his men over to a truck that was already loaded up with supplies, including the stolen guns. "Ahhh, nice" Negan murmured as he sorted through the supplies. "That'll do pig, that'll do" he said, grinning. He looked around, and when no one responded he defensively said "What? None of you motherfuckers ever saw that movie Babe, with the fucking talking pig?..." Negan rolled his eyes.

"Well then, I guess we'll be going. Thanks so much for your time." Negan gave one last wink at Michonne as he spun around and headed back to the front gates.

Suddenly, Spencer stepped out from around the supply truck, aimed his gun at Negan, and fired.


	9. Chapter 9

Carl watched Negan from his vantage point on the roof of a house. He was surprised when his father gave him the secret job of sniper along with Sasha. After Carl lost his eye, he had to relearn many things, including how to shoot. During the months following his injury he would go outside the walls with his father, using trees and walkers as target practice and physical therapy. The constant practice taught him how to compensate for his lack of depth perception, and he worked himself back up to his former accuracy.

He was proud that his father was finally treating him like a valid member of the group, and not a child. He knew that Rick only gave him this job because he completely trusted him, his shooting ability, and his judgement. Rick had told both him and Sasha not to shoot unless absolutely necessary. Only if someone's life was in danger.

Carl was relieved when he saw Michonne being brought in by Negan's men. He was fairly far away, but he could tell by the way Michonne was walking that something was wrong with her. Carl was livid at the thought of these men hurting his mom. When Rick and Negan suddenly began fighting, Carl was tempted to shoot. He looked across the street at Sasha who was perched on another roof, and he saw her hold up her hand, telling him to wait. He could see Rick punching and headbutting Negan, Negan choking Rick, and then Rick biting Negan. Carl trained his gun on Negan's head and waited for the second that Negan took a gun out, but he didn't. And so, Sasha and Carl didn't shoot.

Carl watched as Negan, Spencer, and some of Negan's men went on a tour around Alexandria. They went into the food pantry, they toured the solar panels and the orchard, and they entered some of the houses, including the house Carl was perched on. Carl could hear the men walking around underneath him, commenting on the size of the house and the bedrooms. He just prayed they didn't decide to go on the roof.

When they were done, he watched as Rick showed Negan the truck with all of their hard earned supplies in it. Negan seemed to be satisfied and started walking back towards the front gates. Carl released his held breath. As much as he wanted Negan dead for killing Abraham, and kidnapping Michonne, he didn't want to actually shoot someone. Not when him missing the shot would mean one of his family members were dead... again. He felt his body relax more and more, the further Negan and his men walked. And suddenly, a gun went off.

At first Carl was startled. He thought it was his shotgun. He looked across at Sasha and saw her staring down at the supply truck. Carl looked at where she was focused and saw Spencer with his gun up. When he followed Spencer's gaze he saw one of Negan's men, who was walking behind Negan, dead with a gunshot to the head.

Everyone on the ground below was frozen in place in shock. Negan spun around and saw his soldier on the ground. "What the fuck!" he yelled in shock. He looked up and saw Spencer still holding up his gun. "Did this dumb ass really try to fucking shoot me?" he screamed. Before Spencer could do anything, one of Negan's soldiers shot him in the chest.

"Wait!" Rick yelled, holding his hands up, but it was too late. One of the other Alexandrians picked up their weapon which was still laying on the floor, and shot another one of Negan's soldiers, and then all hell broke loose.

Rick grabbed Michonne and dragged her behind the supply truck, laying on top of her to shield her from bullets. Those Alexandrians who were out in the open started running for the houses, firing as they ran.

Carl and Sasha went into action, firing at Negan's men from the rooftops.

Carl tried to target the soldiers who were firing at Rick and Michonne who were hiding behind the truck, as Sasha provided cover for those Alexandrians trying to run to the houses.

Suddenly, Carl realized someone was shooting at him. A bullet hit a shingle near his foot causing him to jump. Another one whizzed past his head sending up a cloud of dust as it hit the wall in front of him. Carl dived for cover and saw Sasha scrambling to get out of the way of a hail of bullets raining down on her. Terrified, Carl looked around trying to figure out where the bullets were coming from. He realized that someone was shooting from the buildings surrounding the safe zone. Negan had brought snipers, and from the amount of bullets hitting the roof he had brought a lot.

There were so many bullets hitting the wall and roof around Carl that he couldn't crawl to the door leading off the roof. He heard a woman scream and he immediately knew that Sasha had been hit. Carl was so scared he started to shake. It didn't look like he would make it off the roof.

Rick lay on the ground on top of Michonne. He couldn't believe Spencer's stupidity, and now because of him more people would die. Rick looked down at Michonne. He could tell that him laying on top of her was hurting her ribs, but she didn't say anything. She was trying to look for a place for them to run. "If you run to that house over there and hide behind the tree in the yard, you can give me cover as I run" she whispered. "I'm not leaving you here" he snapped. "You're gonna be able to run faster than I can" she responded. It was then that Rick realized he gave his gun to one of Negan's men. "Shit! I don't have my gun" he realized. They both ducked down again as bullets bounced off the side of the truck.

Rick could hear Negan shouting "Get the snipers on the roof!". Rick turned sheet white. "Carl is up there!" he growled to Michonne. Michonne's eyes grew round. "Go!" she yelled at him. Rick hesitated. "Go get him!" she screamed.

Rick got up and started running towards the house where Carl was. Two of Negan's men were already on the porch. When they saw Rick they turned around and shot at him causing Rick to dive into the bushes. He ran around to the back door of the house but it was locked. "Shit!" He yelled in frustration. He crept back around to the front of the house, but the two guards had already entered.

Terrified for Carl, Rick dashed into the kitchen, grabbing a butcher's knife off the counter. He slowly crept up the stairs trying not to let the stairs creak. He could hear the men trying to kick in the door leading to the roof, which thankfully was locked. He could also hear gunfire on the roof. As Rick tried to silently creep up behind the men, one suddenly turned around and fired. The bullet came so close to Rick's shoulder he thought he was shot at first, but he didn't care. He plunged the knife into the man's chest and pushed him backwards into the second man who dropped his gun. Rick quickly picked it up and shot the second man in the head.

Rick pounded on the door to the roof. "Carl! Carl! open the door!". He couldn't hear a response. "Carl!"he yelled. Suddenly the door opened and Carl tumbled through it. Carl was shaking badly. Rick immediately checked Carl for bullet wounds. When he didn't see any blood, he wrapped Carl in a bear hug. "They have snipers too" Carl managed to get out "They shot Sasha!".

Rick and Carl ran downstairs and were immediately greeted by 5 of Negan's men with guns drawn. They took hold of Rick and Carl and dragged them outside. As they left the house, Rick saw 3 more men dragging a semi-conscious Sasha out of the house across the street.

Rick was devastated. He knew that after what he did to Negan he would be executed. And Negan already promised to shoot Carl if they tried anything. Rick decided that if he and Carl were going to die, the last thing Carl would see was his father fighting for him.

The men dragged Rick and Carl over to the front gates where other captured Alexandrians were being herded. Rick noticed that Negan's men seemed to suddenly multiply. They had to have been hiding nearby waiting for an incident like this to happen. Rick had to give it to Negan, he was smart.

Rick caught sight of Michonne being thrown on the ground by another soldier and he yelled "Don't touch her!", leading to him being knocked in the back of the head with a rifle.

Negan strolled up to Rick who was face first on the ground. "You push me, and you push me, and you push me Rick. You know what happens when I reach my breaking point?". Rick pushed himself up into a kneeling position and started saying "You think I...", Negan screamed " NO! You don't get to fucking talk right now. Your people killed a bunch of my men, and tried to kill ME! You get to listen. How fucking stupid are you? You lead these people... you had to have known something. You think I would roll up in here without a back up team and snipers?"

Negan leaned into Rick's face until they were nose to nose. "In case you haven't noticed, you're fucking fucked you fucker".


	10. Chapter 10

_**Thanks again to everyone who is kind enough to leave a comment on this fic. It is truly appreciated.** _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne was in a panic. She knew Rick and Carl were about to die, and even with her katana strapped to her back, there was only so much she could do. She couldn't believe that after all she'd been through, the death of her son and boyfriend, wandering through the woods alone, the Governor trying to kill her, losing their home in the prison, wandering around with Carl and Rick, almost being eaten at Terminus, reaching rock bottom on the road... and then finding Alexandria, and hope, and love... after all of that... it would end with her son and boyfriend being killed in front of her... again. She wouldn't survive it again. She couldn't.

Negan slowly walked over to Carl who was kneeling, with a guard holding onto his shoulders. Carl was shaking badly and a tear ran down his face. "Finally, some emotion from the kid!" Negan laughed "I was starting to think you were a psychopath". Negan leaned down closer to Carl. "You know kid, I really don't want to shoot you. I'm not for shooting the innocent and such. But then again, you were on that roof shooting at my men." Negan looked over at Rick who's fists were clenched so hard they were white. "And I made your dad a promise".

"No!" Rick screamed "Please... please... It was me, I'm in charge. I made the decisions, if you shoot anyone it should be me".

"Oh you'll get your turn" Negan said, raising his gun to Carl's head. Rick leaped from his spot on the ground but was immediately tackled by 3 guards.

"Stop! Please!" Michonne screamed "Please don't shoot him". Negan turned to look at her. "Please..." she said softly.

Negan seemed to be waiting. "Why shouldn't I?" he replied softly.

Michonne gulped. She knew  _he_  knew what she was going to do. She slowly and painfully got up from the ground and walked over to Negan. She could see the confused look on Rick's face as he lay on the ground with 3 guards still sitting on top of him. She stopped in front of Negan and painfully got to her knees again.

"I'll do it. I'll be your wife. If you spare both of them." she whispered, bowing her head.

Carl's eyes widened and he looked to Rick. Rick was shaking uncontrollably in confusion and rage. He didn't understand what was happening.

Negan smiled and was quiet for a minute. He reached out and put his hand under Michonne's chin, lifting her head back up to look at him. He could see the tears rolling from her eyes. She tried her best not to pull away from his touch.

"Do you  _want_  to be my wife?" Negan asked. Michonne couldn't believe what he was asking. Of course she didn't. "When I choose a wife the process is completely voluntary, it's an honor to be with me. But it comes with a price... _Complete devotion_." Negan emphasized, looking directly at Rick.

Michonne didn't know what to say. Everyone watching this knew that she didn't want this, but she could sense that Negan needed her to choose him, so he could justify whatever he was going to do to her later. He also knew that her choosing him over Rick would break Rick, no matter what the circumstances were. She wasn't going to pretend she wanted this to make Negan feel better. She gulped again and then spoke. "I don't want this, but I'll do it if you let them live".

Negan seemed thoughtful for a minute, and then, as if a switch had been turned on, he was suddenly satisfied. "OK! its a fucking deal!" he said happily, snatching Michonne's elbow and pulling her to her feet.

"Michonne!" Rick yelled, struggling with the men who were holding him down "Get off of her! Michonne!". Rick was fighting the guards with everything that he had, causing the guards to punch him viciously to keep him on the ground.

Carl was struggling too, trying to get out of the grip of the man who held his shoulders. The man holding Carl pushed him on to the ground hard.

"Stop!" Michonne yelled. She looked at Negan, "We have a deal, they get hurt and it's off". Negan could tell she was serious. He turned to Rick. "My men will let you and your boy go if you stay there and don't try to come after us. We are taking the truck with the supplies as compensation for all my men your people shot today".

"If you hurt her I'm going to fucking kill you!" Rick screamed, with more venom than Carl or Michonne had ever heard before.

"Yea, you'll probably try" Negan said thoughtfully. As one of his men got into the supply truck to drive it away, Negan signaled for the others to shoot out the tires of all the remaining cars in Alexandria. Negan then sauntered out the front gate of Alexandria, still holding on to Michonne's elbow.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Jesus lay on the roof of the supply truck. He had been up there for what seemed like hours, waiting for Negan's men to drive the truck back to wherever their headquarters were. Rick had asked him to tag along with the supplies so they could finally figure out where Negan's base was. The plan was that Negan would bring back Michonne, Rick would give Negan the truck with the supplies with Jesus on the top, and Jesus would get off the truck when he had the opportunity to, racing back to Alexandria to give Rick the location. Simple.

Spencer had destroyed that plan, and Jesus was at a loss as to what he should do. When the bullets started flying, he clung to the top of the truck, debating if he should shoot back. He knew that firing would immediately give away his location, and any hope of tracking Negan, but his friends were in danger. As much as he wanted to help, he knew this may be the only opportunity to find Negan's secret location. He had to lay there and listen as Carl and Rick were almost shot, and as Michonne offered herself to Negan to save them.

Jesus had immediately recognized the deep love between Rick and Michonne. The day he met them he had assumed they were already a couple, not realizing that they had just admitted their love for each other that very day. It had been Jesus who had accidentally spilled the beans about their relationship to Carl. Jesus knew that Rick would stop at nothing to get Michonne back, and seeing as though every car in Alexandria had been disabled, Jesus knew he was their only hope.

He clung to the top of the truck for an hour and a half as it sped down abandoned roads, cleared highways, and rural streets. He carefully looked for landmarks so that he could find his way back. He took note of street names and routes and repeated them over and over until he memorized the route by heart.

His hands were getting tired, holding on to the makeshift straps that he and Rick had fastened to the top of the truck. He was thirsty and hungry, but he was determined.

At the two hour mark, which was around midday, the truck started to slow down. Jesus could see they were pulling up to a large factory. The factory was surrounded by gates on all sides. Jesus noticed that walkers were chained to the outside of the gates, and skewered on pikes as an undead barrier.

_It will be difficult to attack this place on foot_  he thought to himself.

As they got closer to the factory, Jesus realized that if he didn't get off the truck soon he may be trapped inside the walker gates. The convoy reached a checkpoint where they had to stop so that guards could open the gates. As the truck slowed down Jesus silently slipped off the side, taking care not to alert the truck driver or the cars following behind the truck. Instead of running into the woods, he made sure to stumble erratically so anyone on guard would mistake him for a walker.

Once Jesus made it into the woods, he stayed for a little while to do recon. He saw the cars pull into a large yard. He saw the car that Negan was in stop by the doors to the factory. Negan got out the front passenger side, and he waited while a guard helped Michonne out of the car. She seemed to be in more pain than she was earlier in the day. Negan then held out his arm for her and she reluctantly hooked her own arm around it to steady herself.

_"I need to get back_ _ **now**_ _"_  Jesus thought to himself. He turned around and started running in the direction of Alexandria.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick was the angriest he had ever been in his life. He was done being scared. He was done being defeated, broken, helpless. Negan had just took the one woman who ever really understood him. The woman who became a best friend and mother to his son, and the only mother his daughter had ever known. Michonne was the only woman he ever  _really_  loved.

The realization of that hit Rick like a ton of bricks. He thought he loved Lori. He provided for her, protected her, cared for her. In the past, he thought that was love. But he never had a connection to her anywhere near what he had with Michonne. She had been there for every major event in his life for the past year. His highest highs, when he thought the world was his and he could do anything, and his lowest lows, when he was barely conscious after being beaten almost to death by the Governor and had his pride and home stripped away.

Michonne never judged him, even when he deserved to be judged. Even when he hurt her by practically ignoring her when they came to Alexandria and kissing another woman, while Michonne was living in his house and caring for his children. When he got to Alexandria he had lied to her for the first time, about stealing guns from the armory. He had pushed her away. And she still stayed. She still took care of his kids. She still took care of him.

Tears almost came to Rick eyes as he thought about how much he must have hurt her. He had never really apologized, but she didn't ask him to, or even blame him. He really didn't deserve her. And now he didn't have her.

In that minute Rick made a decision.

_She is my wife. She has been my wife for a long time. I will never call her anything else again._

Rick made the decision that he was going to get Michonne and he was going to marry her. And nothing else in heaven or hell would stop him.

Rick was snapped out of his thoughts when Father Gabriel who was on guard duty yelled "People on horseback!". Rick jumped up and ran to the gates preparing for another attack from Negan. He was shocked to see Morgan trotting up to the gates on a horse, with 30 other horsemen behind him.

"Open the gates!" Rick yelled, and Morgan trotted inside with the other horsemen before the gates closed again. "Hey Rick!" Morgan said cheerfully as he climbed off the horse's back. "Morgan did you find Carol?" Rick asked. "I sure did. She was badly injured by Negan's men, they shot her three times, but these men helped me take her back to their community. She's recovering there, but she's alive". "Their community?" Rick asked "you mean Hilltop?". "No" Morgan smiled "They're from a place called the Kingdom. This is their leader, Ezekiel" Morgan said, gesturing to a large black man with locs.

_Like Michonne's_  Rick thought involuntarily. He must've been in his late 50's to 60's as his locs were pure white.

_I wonder if hers will get that color too when we get older_  Rick thought, and he had to purposefully redirect his mind to focus on what was happening in front of him.

"Morgan has told us that your people have successfully attacked Negan" Ezekiel boomed in a cheery voice "We would like to offer you assistance in your fight against him. He has been shaking our people down for supplies for months and we've had enough".

Rick looked down. He didn't know how to explain to Ezekiel how things had gone so wrong. His body language alone alerted Morgan.

"Rick, are you ok?" Morgan asked. Morgan then realized that Michonne wasn't around. "Where's Michonne?'

"Negan took her" Rick said. "His men shot up our cars so we can't follow. Jesus was hiding on one of the trucks so he could find out where their compound is, but even once he comes back we'll have to walk there. It might take days..."

_She might be with them for days_  Rick thought. Who knew what they did to her the first time she was there, his heart hurt to think of what would happen now that she agreed to be Negan's wife.

"Perhaps we can help, my friend." said Ezekiel. "We have plenty of horses at the Kingdom".


	11. Chapter 11

Rick, Carl, Father Gabriel, Eugene, Rosita, Aaron and 12 other Alexandrians prepared to leave for the Kingdom. They took as many weapons as could be spared without leaving Alexandria defenseless. They took enough food to keep them fed for a day or two, but with Negan having taken half their supplies, and with no working cars to go on runs, there wasn't much to take.

Rick made final rounds, stopping by the house where Eric was caring for Sasha. When he got there she was awake and alert, sitting up in the bed with gauze wrapped around her gunshot wound in the abdomen. Luckily, the bullet hadn't hit any major organs and went clean through. "Hey" Rick said. "Hey" she said, looking up. "We're about to head out, I just wanted to come here and tell you thank you". She looked a little surprised. "For what?" she asked. "For protecting us, for putting your life on the line to make sure the others could get back to the houses. For having our back". Sasha smiled. "Isn't that what we do? You've done the same for me many times. But you're welcome... and Rick?" "Yea?" "Go get your wife". Rick smiled and patted Sasha's hand, he then got up and made his final round to visit Judith.

She was being taken care of by an older woman, Ellie, who often watched the other children in Alexandria. Ellie handed Judith over to her father. "Hi baby girl" he cooed to her, and she smiled at him, making little noises as if she were imitating him. "I have to go honey. I have to go get your mama. But I will be back" he said looking into her little brown eyes, wondering if she understood. "I'll be back soon, I promise. And I'll bring mama home. OK?" Judith looked back into his blue eyes for a moment, and then said "ma... mama..." Rick froze in shock. "What did you say baby girl?" he asked, tears spilling down his eyes. "mamamamama" she repeated again, laughing. Rick was outright sobbing now. He held Judith tight, hugging her as she grabbed handfuls of his curls, playfully pulling them. "I'm gonna bring mama back so you can tell that to her".

The horsemen from the Kingdom doubled up with the Alexandrians so that everyone was on a horse. Rick shared a horse with Ezekiel. "How far away is the Kingdom?" Rick asked. "It is about an hour and a half ride. But on the way we must pick up Shiva, she's been waiting patiently for us". Rick gave a confused look to Morgan, who was on the horse next to them with Carl. "Shiva is his pet" Morgan said smiling. "You're gonna love her" he said, turning his head towards Carl.

They continued on in silence for a few more minutes until Rick saw a scene that made him believe he was hallucinating the same way he did when he lost Lori. In the middle of the road, a full grown tiger sat, eating the arm off a still struggling walker. Rick's mouth dropped open in shock. Carl nearly fell off Morgan's horse. Rosita let out a scream before she put her hand over her mouth. "Is that... is that a..." started Rick, but he didn't finish his sentence. "A tiger, yes" said Ezekiel proudly "She is Shiva, my closest friend. Come Shiva!" he yelled. The tiger reluctantly let go of the walker who was still trying to claw at the tiger despite now missing an arm, and trotted up to the horse Ezekiel was on. Rick quickly lifted his legs, thinking the tiger was going to attack the horse. "Don't worry Rick. Shiva is very well behaved, aren't you girl?" Ezekiel asked the tiger, who rubbed her huge head on Ezekiel's leg.

Carl, once realizing that the tiger was friendly, was instantly fascinated. "How did you get a tiger?" he asked Ezekiel, as the horses continued to walk with the tiger trotting slightly ahead of them. "I was a zookeeper in my old life. Shiva was my charge. I was there when she was born, held her in my hands when she was the size of a kitten. I would visit her everyday, and I trained her to do simple things like come when called, present her belly, and open her mouth for medical inspections. Before everything happened I had never been with her without a cage separating us. After everything fell, I went back to the zoo to see if there was anything I could do. I knew that no one had thought about freeing the animals, and when I returned they were all dead in their cages, except for Shiva. She was starving, dehydrated, alone... just like I was". Ezekiel stopped talking for a moment, and Rick could sense his mood had changed.

"So, you saved her?" Carl prodded. Ezekiel took a breath. "No. She saved me. I had lost everything, I wanted to die. I opened her cage hoping she'd attack me..." Ezekiel trailed off. "But she didn't" Carl finished. "No, she didn't. She walked up to me and rubbed her face on me. She knew I had come back for her. She lead me out of the city. She protected me on many occasions. I owe her my life". The group continued on in silence for a while. "What do you feed her?" Carl asked. Ezekiel smiled "I do not feed her anything. She takes care of herself. She hunts the dead when she's hungry. Sometimes she catches a rabbit or a deer". "She's so cool!" Carl gushed "Wait till I tell Michon..." he suddenly quieted.

Rick glanced over at Carl and noticed the dark look on his face. No one spoke for a while, and the only sounds were the clicking of the horses hooves and the quiet panting of the tiger as she walked. "Why did you agree to help us attack Negan?" Rick asked, breaking the silence. "I have never been accepting of Negan's truce. I crowned myself King of the Kingdom in order to make the lives of my people as good as they can be. I wish to be rid of Negan and his Saviors, I've simply been waiting for the right moment to strike against these devils. The day has finally come to right the wrongs that have befallen so many people under this tyrant".

The group traveled on in silence once again. Rick was lost in his thoughts of wondering what was happening to Michonne at the moment, and what he'd do to Negan once he was in front of him again, when suddenly the faraway sound of a car engine snapped him back to reality.

"Prepare arms!" Ezekiel yelled to his horsemen, and they all moved their horses off the road, flanking it on both sides. Those horsemen with spears moved to the back of the group while those with guns took the front, pointing their guns at the road ahead."Shiva come!" Ezekiel yelled, and the tiger dutifully trotted back over to the group.

The vehicle was getting louder and louder as it made its way down the road, but it still couldn't be seen. Suddenly Rick could make out a black pickup truck speeding down the road. He couldn't see the driver. "Aim!" Ezekiel yelled, and everyone with a gun pointed their weapon at the truck. Rick realized that the driver finally noticed them on the side of the road and started to slow down, making a stop a few dozen yards away. The door opened and Rick was relieved to see the face of Jesus.

Rick hopped off the back of the horse and jogged up to Jesus. "Did you find out where they are?" he asked impatiently. "Yes, I've seen where they live. Its about an hour and a half drive from here. They've got gates with walkers all around them. They're using the dead as a defensive measure... pretty smart. They've got some impaled into the ground, others chained to cars. Just getting past the gates could be a problem". "How big is their compound?" Rick asked. "It's pretty big. Its in a factory, about 5 floors high" Jesus said. "Did you see anything else?". Jesus paused for a moment "I saw Michonne. Negan was escorting her into the factory. She seemed to be in pain". Rick reached up and rubbed his eyes.

Rick turned around and walked back to Ezekiel. "We need to get to the Kingdom now. We need to pick up those extra horses and men and start the trek over to that factory. The sun is going to go down in a few hours, and I'm not leaving her with that madman for another night".

"Rick" Jesus called "I can go back to Hilltop and gather those people I told you about. They haven't been trained properly, but the more people we have, the better. Here, I wrote down the directions to the factory. We'll meet you there". Rick nodded his head and took the piece of note paper with the directions. "Thank you Jesus". "You're welcome" Jesus called as he hopped into the pickup truck and sped off.

Rick got back on Ezekiel's horse, and everyone started galloping back to the Kingdom, with Shiva leading the way.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It took another hour for the convoy of horses to make their way to the Kingdom which was housed inside of a high school. The inhabitants had parked yellow school buses around the entrances as a barrier, and then piled metal sheets in front of the buses to make a wall. Rick could immediately smell horses. "Whoa" Carl exclaimed, waving his hands in front of his face to wave away the smell. It was the first word Carl had said in an hour.

"Yes, we do have many horses here. We keep and breed them in the school's field. I was lucky to find a horse farm nearby. The free range horses had survived, but unfortunately the ones left in their stalls had died. We started off with just a few but I started a breeding program similar to what we had at the zoo, and now we have dozens. We'll only use the most experienced horses of course. The colts are very unpredictable".

They trotted through the Kingdom's gates and stopped at the front entrance to the school. Everyone was relieved to get off the horses and stretch their legs. A man ran out the school's front entrance to greet Ezekiel. He bowed and quickly said "King Ezekiel! We rejoice at your return. I see that you have brought guests. We are preparing a feast for all of you, it should be ready in half an hour's time." Ezekiel smiled, "Thank you Tom". Ezekiel then turned to address the Alexandrians, "Guests, you may take the half hour to tour our kingdom, or to take your rest. We do have quite a long night ahead of us". Ezekiel then turned to Rick. "Perhaps we should discuss strategy". Rick nodded. He turned to Carl to tell him that he should go see the kingdom with Rosita or Eugene, but Carl, anticipating what Rick was about to say cut him off. "I'm staying with you" he said firmly, and Rick smiled, slightly proud of the man his son was becoming.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne was in excruciating pain on the way back to Negan's factory. It was around noon, and almost on schedule the pain killers that Winston had given her had worn off, leaving her side throbbing. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the emotional torment she was in. She had been reunited with Rick and Carl only to be ripped away from them again. She did what she had to do to save their lives, and now she was going to have to deal with the consequences.

Negan who was sitting in the front passenger seat looked back at her. "How are you doing wifey?" he asked. She didn't answer. He chuckled. "Mad at me already huh? When we get back we'll get you some more pain killers and a nice hot shower. Maybe I'll even join you." he said, winking. Michonne felt sick and almost threw up right then and there.

The guard sitting next to her noticed. "Negan, sir. I think she's sick". Negan turned around again studying her more closely. "Shit honey. I didn't know it was that bad" Negan said, looking concerned. He turned to the driver, "Speed up, we gotta get back".

Michonne felt like she was spinning. She wanted to believe that there was a way out of this, that she would escape this nightmare, or Rick would come to save her. But deep down she knew that Rick didn't know where she was, and he didn't have a way of getting to her. Even if he did, the sheer number of Saviors living in the factory would ensure that he ended up dead. Maybe it was best if he stayed in Alexandria. But she knew he wouldn't. He would try to save her, and he'd die.

Michonne started to see stars in front of her eyes, and then, without warning, she passed out.

When she woke up they were back at the factory. The throbbing in her side had gotten worse. One of the guards helped her out of the car, and then Negan held his arm out for her. As much as she didn't want to take it, she didn't think she could walk without help. She wrapped her arm through his and they made their way inside.

When Negan entered the factory she heard the very familiar announcement "Negan has returned!". As she slowly walked into the room, Negan supporting her, she watched as all of Negan's subjects got on their knees. "Where's Winston?" Negan yelled, almost in a panic. "I'm here Negan, sir" Michonne could hear Winston answer. He quickly got up from his knees and hurried up to Negan, looking obviously confused as to why Michonne was back. "Take care of her. She needs painkillers. She passed out in the car". "Yes sir" Winston said, putting his arm around Michonne to support her.

Winston took Michonne back to the infirmary and laid her down on one of the beds. "Things didn't work out huh?" he asked. She was in too much pain to answer. He gave her some painkillers and a cup of water to swallow it down. As she waited for the painkillers to kick in, she finally let her guard down, releasing her sorrow. She started to sob.

Winston came over and held her as she cried, trying his best not to hurt her any further. He stroked her hair until the painkillers kicked in, causing her to drift off to sleep.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Michonne opened her eyes, she was laying on her uninjured side, facing the infirmary window. The sun was going down. She must've slept for a few hours. She felt much better, the excruciating pain had now lessened to a more manageable throb. She slowly turned over onto her back and froze when she saw Negan sleeping in a chair next to her bed.

He looked like he had been there for a while, and he slept with his head cocked to one side, and Lucille resting in his lap. Michonne didn't know what to think.

As she laid there pondering what she should do, he woke up. "Hey honey, you're awake" he said, leaning closer to her. "Feeling better?". She didn't respond. "You know Michonne, we are going to have to get to know each other a little better, seeing how we're married now". He smiled at her. "I brought you some clothes". He reached into a bag behind him and pulled out the blue dress she wore her first night at the factory. "You looked so hot in this before, I want you to put this on, and I have a surprise for you". She continued to stare, completely disgusted with him. "Please?" he asked "I want you to look great for our first date".


	12. Chapter 12

Michonne was tired of this whole situation, she wanted it to be over. She wanted to go home, hug her kids, and go to bed with Rick. But she knew that was a fantasy that wasn't happening any time soon.  _If ever_ , she thought.

She was standing in front of a full length mirror that Winston had provided for her. Negan had given her new shoes for their "date", blue heels that matched the dress he provided. He (or one of his subjects) had also made some kind of flowery corsage to go in her hair. The fact that he was trying to dress her up made her nauseous, but she didn't have the energy to fight him on it. The shoes were actually pretty nice, definitely something she would have picked out herself in her old life, when she wore heels, and makeup, and did her hair. Thinking back to who she used to be made her smile. She used to be quite the fashionista, but all of that seemed so obsolete nowadays.

She looked at the blood stained white shirt and jeans she had been wearing for almost 5 days. It would be nice to get out of these again she thought. Moving like and old woman, she tried to pull her shirt over her head, but the pain in her side wouldn't let her. She needed help. She rolled her eyes. She wasn't used to being so helpless and she hated it.

She pulled her shirt back down and shuffled over to the door of the room she was in. She peeked out and saw Winston arranging some medical supplies. "Winston. I... I need some help with my clothes. Could you get Sherry?" she asked. "Yea, sure" he replied. He thought for a moment and said "Just don't go anywhere ok? you go missing and I go dead". She nodded and went back into her room.

While she was waiting she went back to the mirror and studied her face. The swelling on her right side had gone down somewhat and she could now see out of both eyes, but there was still bruising. She lifted her shirt again and studied the black and blue mark over her ribs.

_I'm a mess. I don't know what Negan is seeing, but I need to play my cards right. I can use this "date" to find out more information about him. Maybe something that can be helpful to Rick, something Rick can use against him. At least if I get out of the infirmary I can learn the layout of this factory a little better._

She tried to ignore the real source of her uneasiness.  _Where is this "date" leading to?_  Negan had never tried to force himself on her yet, but she had a feeling it was coming. He had made it clear that he didn't condone rape, but he didn't consider what he did to his "wives" rape. Even if they hated him, in his mind, they chose to be there.

She knew she had made a deal, and he had kept his end of the bargain so far. She asked herself if she could really go through with her end of the bargain, and if she did, who would she become after that?

A knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts. "Come in" she said, and Sherry walked into the room. "I'm so sorry" Sherry whispered, coming over to her and giving her a hug. "What happened?".

"Everything went wrong. One of my people shot at him" Michonne said, shaking her head. "He threatened to kill my... the leader of our group... and his son. I made a deal with him, to become one of his wives..." Michonne paused "well... he said his  _wife_ ". Sherry looked confused. Michonne continued "He wants me to be his  _only_  wife". Sherry's expression changed to one Michonne couldn't recognize. "What does that mean for us?" Sherry asked. "I'm going to talk to him and tell him that I don't want that. I know that your status protects you from his men. I wouldn't want you to have to work for points or go back to however life was before... this." Sherry looked at the floor.

"Sherry" Michonne said, reaching for her hand "you have been a good friend to me since I got here, and I thank you for it. If I ever get a chance to repay you I will. I promise." Sherry nodded and looked up again. "You needed help?" she asked, changing the subject.

Sherry helped Michonne pull her shirt off without hurting her ribs too much, and Michonne noticed Sherry glancing at the black and blue on her ribs before quickly looking away. Michonne took off her jeans and then Sherry dropped the dress over Michonne's head, while Michonne quickly pulled it down her body until it was in place.

"You still look great" Sherry said with a smirk. Sherry grabbed the flower corsage as Michonne put on the blue shoes. As Michonne stood in the heels she felt like a different person. She could almost imagine she was getting dressed to go out on a night on the town with Rick, instead of with a murderous megalomaniac. "Here let me" said Sherry, as she clipped the flowers into Michonne's hair. Sherry took a step back. "Perfect" she said, smiling.

Michonne nervously moved to the mirror and was shocked by the reflection. It was as if she was looking back at herself 3 years ago, minus the bruises. She almost felt guilty, knowing that while she was dressed up in heels with flowers in her hair, Rick was probably going crazy with worry. Michonne must've drifted off in thought while staring at the mirror because Sherry cleared her throat.

"I'm missing one more thing" Michonne said, grabbing her katana and strapping it on her back. "You think he'll have a problem with this?"

Sherry just shrugged. "I guess you'll find out".

Michonne left her room, and Winston who was outside the door stopped and stared. "Well aren't you a sight. If I liked women I'd be all over you" he laughed, causing Michonne to smile. "Negan is waiting outside" he added, causing her smile to disappear. She took a deep breath and walked out the door.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Before Rick and Carl met with Ezekiel for a strategy meeting, they stopped by to visit Carol who was recovering from three bullet wounds. They spoke to her, learning that she left Alexandria because she no longer wanted to kill. Rick tried to convince her that she could come back, live in the community without killing, that she was still loved and valuable to their family, but she wasn't ready and decided to stay in the Kingdom for a while until she made her final decision of whether she was going to move on by herself.

After the strategy meeting Rick, Carl and the other Alexandrians were invited to a large feast of canned beans, fresh tomatoes, and canned hash. It wasn't what would be considered a feast 3 years ago, but they were all hungry, and grateful for the food. Afterwards, everyone picked a horse and saddled up. There were a total of 45 people on horseback who were making the trip to the factory, plus they had two cars full of people, and a tiger. The residents of the Kingdom didn't have as many guns as the Alexandrians, but they were fairly skilled in archery, swords, and spears. Rick noticed that most of the weapons had been made at the Hilltop.

They started off towards the factory just as the sun began to set. Rick hoped they weren't too late to save his wife.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Negan saw her in her tight fitting ball gown, with heels, flowers in her hair, and a katana strapped to her back he was immediately turned on.

_She's a fucking goddess_  he thought. He stared at her, taking her in. She stared back at him with a scowl.

"You look fucking awesome" he said in awe. He held his arm out for her to take it. She rolled her eyes and strolled past him down the hallway. He took the opportunity to stare at her butt as she walked.

He jogged to catch up with her and said "Your surprise is this way my lady", leading her down a series of hallways until he took her to what looked like a cafeteria. He opened the door for her and she stopped in front of it, cautiously peering into the room.

She could see a single circular dining table in the middle of the room covered with a table cloth. On top of the table were two lit candles and flowers. Michonne was shocked.

_Is he really taking me on a date?_

She turned to look at Negan in confusion. "I told you, it's our first date" he said "after you" and he gestured for her to enter the room. She cautiously entered the room, bracing herself for some kind of attack. She walked over to one of the chairs next to the table and as she slowly sat he pushed her chair in behind her.

She suspiciously followed him with her eyes as he walked to the other side of the table and sat across from her. She stared at him.

"So honey..." he began. Michonne's eyes flashed "Don't call me honey" she growled. He paused for a moment and then smiled.

"So  _Michonne_ " he started again, emphasizing her name "What did you do before the world turned to shit?". She couldn't believe he was really trying to have a conversation with her.

"What did  _you_  do?" she asked. "I used to work right here. I was just a blue collar factory worker" he explained.

She snorted. "That explains a lot". He looked at her confused.

"Walking around here like a king, having your presence announced whenever you enter a room, having your people bow at your feet. You were nothing in the real world, so you made your own world".

He nodded his head. "Guess you're right". "Did you never get laid too? Is that why you need ten wives?" she continued.

He smirked, "Well now I only need one". "You're not going to kick those girls to the curb. You made a deal with them and you're going to keep it" she said. "Are you going to keep  _your_  end of our deal?" he asked, staring into her eyes. For the first time she broke the stare and looked away. And then, two of Negan's men entered. One was carrying two plates of food, the other two glasses of wine.

They placed the food and wine on the table and quickly left. Michonne looked down into her plate. Steak, mashed potatoes and peas. To her annoyance, her stomach growled loudly, betraying that she hadn't eaten all day.

Negan nodded knowingly. "Go ahead, I know you're hungry. And with the way you passed out in the car, you need to eat". She hated that he'd seen her at one of her weakest times. She stubbornly refused. He grinned, took a knife and fork, and cut into his steak. He then slowly put it into his mouth and chewed. It seemed like he was savoring the taste.

"I bet you haven't had steak in at least two years" he bragged. "The cows come from Hilltop. But we only slaughter them on special occasions". "What was the occasion for this cow?" she grumbled. "You" he said quickly, not looking up from his plate.

She looked back down at her plate. It looked and smelled amazing. She picked up the fork and stabbed a pea, slowly putting it in her mouth. Negan grinned like he'd just won a victory.

They sat in silence for a minute, Negan eating, and Michonne pushing food around her plate, until Michonne said "Why did you name your baseball bat?". He seemed to be surprised and slightly uncomfortable about the question.

"It's named after my wife, Lucille" he said "she died" he added. Michonne was surprised to see real sadness in his eyes. "So you use a baseball bat named after your wife to bash people's heads in?" she asked. "Lucille was stubborn, sharp as a tack, and hard as hell. This bat reminds me of her... other people remind me of her too" He said, looking into her eyes.

Michonne felt uncomfortable with the way he was staring at her. She was slightly unnerved that Negan was actually opening up to her in this way. This was certainly not the type of "date" she was expecting. To relieve some of her anxiety, she took a bite of the steak. It was absolutely perfect. She actually had to drop her fork and knife to stop herself from taking another bite.

Negan seemed to be watching her intensely. "So why do you carry a katana Michonne?" he asked. She didn't immediately answer, still reeling from how good the steak tasted. "I found it" she answered. "Who taught you to use it?" he asked. "Who taught  _you_  to use a baseball bat?" she shot back.

He smiled again. He took a sip from his wine glass. They sat in silence for a little while until Negan spoke. "You never answered if you would keep your end of our deal". Michonne brought her eyes up to meet Negan's. "Do I have a choice?" she asked angrily. "Of course you do" he said. "You can choose not to be my wife, and then all the protection I have afforded to your town will be withdrawn". "That's not a choice!" she spat. He ignored her comment.

"So what's your decision?" he prodded. Michonne looked down into her plate, suddenly far from hungry. She pictured the way Judith looked when she slept, so peaceful, like a tiny porcelain doll. She remembered the way Carl laughed when she and him had an inside joke that Rick wasn't in on. She recalled the way Rick's lips felt when they were pressed against her's the first time they kissed, and how it felt to finally run her fingers through his hair the way she'd always wanted to. Negan gave her time to think of her answer.

"Yes" she whispered.


	13. Chapter 13

The trip to the factory was nerve wracking. There were no lights on the road, but luckily it was a full moon, and pale light shone across the asphalt, allowing the riders to make out the shapes of abandoned cars, and street signs. The only sounds were the clicking of horse hooves, the panting of Shiva, and the low rumble of the engines of the two cars. Most of the people from the Kingdom had brought lanterns, which allowed Rick to read the paper that Jesus gave him with the directions. But traveling at night to an unknown destination, with walkers roaming the woods was unnerving.

Ezekiel seemed to be the only person who wasn't constantly checking the woods for sneak attacks. "Shiva is my eyes and ears in the dark" he explained. "Nothing will sneak up on us that she doesn't hear or see first". Rick just nodded, but he continued to squint into the darkness, keeping his guard up.

"This Michonne, she must be someone special" Ezekiel said. "She is" Rick replied "She's my wife... at least, she will be... if she accepts." he finished. Ezekiel shook his head "Ahh, so you wish to propose to her. I'm sure when she sees all of us coming to get her she will realize how much you care about her". Rick nodded.

"I'm just worried about what he's doing to her" Rick confessed "she's been through so much already. I know there's more that happened to her in her life that I don't even know about. I never asked, I thought she would tell me when she was ready. But what if she was waiting for me to just ask? To show I cared? What if he's hurting her right now because of us?" Rick abruptly stopped talking. He could feel the tears building up in his eyes and he promised himself he was done crying.

Carl, overhearing the conversation from his horse that was trotting next to Rick's chimed in. "Dad, we all love Michonne. We're all worried about her. But Michonne will be ok, she's a survivor, like all of us... and she'll say yes when you ask her" Carl said confidently. Rick turned to look at his son. Carl had a small grin on his face that made Rick start to grin as well. They rode on in silence for a few miles.

In the distance, Rick could make out a large factory. "I think we're here" he said. Everyone quickly moved off the road and into the woods. They tied the horses up loosely to allow them to run if a walker herd happened to wander by.

"We have to assume they've got snipers out here" Rick said to the crowd. "Watch the windows, if you see anyone, light them up. They may even have look outs who've seen us already. We need to be prepared for that. We've gone over the plan already, everyone knows what to do. The only wildcard that we have is we don't know the layout of this place, and we don't know where Michonne is being held. If you can capture one of the Saviors and get information out of them, do it. If you can't, kill them".

Rick looked at all the people gathered in front of him, willing to die to take out Negan and save Michonne. "I want to thank all of you for agreeing to do this on such sort notice, and with the odds stacked against us. But we can get this done. And once we do, we're free from this man. Free to trade with each other in peace without giving him half of what we've worked for. Now, we're just gonna wait for the team from the Hilltop, fill them in on what we're doing, and then we'll start".

As people spread out to prepare themselves and get into position, Rick went over to Carl. "Carl, you already know, you're with the sniper group. If you see Michonne, you know what to do". "Yea dad, I'll take out anyone in her way."Rick nodded. "I just wanted to tell you, just in case it doesn't work out the way we expect... I wanted to tell you that I'm proud of you, son. Michonne is too. And your mom, if she could see the man you are, she would be too". Carl smiled. "I know dad. But it will work out the way we expect. I  _know_  it will". Rick nodded. "It will".

Shortly, a caravan of cars pulled up to where the horses were tied. It was their back-up from the Hilltop, and their arrival brought the number of people in the assault up to 80. Rick was relieved to see Jesus, and Glenn, who he hadn't seen since dropping off Daryl and Maggie at Hilltop. Glenn gave Rick a big hug. "How are they?" Rick asked. "Maggie's fever has gone down and the infection is lessening" his smile got bigger "and Daryl, he woke up. He's still weak, its gonna take a while for his body to replace all the blood he lost, but he's talking when he's awake. He asked about Carol, and you, and Michonne... I told him we would get everyone back and kill Negan". Rick nodded.

Rick quickly explained the plan to the Hilltop fighters, and everyone got into position. Rick took a few seconds to think.

_This is it. I need to find her, I need to kill him, and I need to take her home. No one will get in my way._

Rick silently crawled as close to the walker gates located in the back of the factory as he could, while still staying in the tree line. He could see guards patrolling the inner gates. He unhooked the rocket launcher that had been strapped around his body. This was the same rocket launcher that Abraham had found while out with Sasha and Daryl, Daryl had used to blow up a group of Negan's men, and that Daryl had used to set the lake in Alexandria on fire to kill a huge walker herd. There were two more rockets left, and Rick was going to use them to destroy Negan.

He quietly loaded the rocket launcher and thought of Abraham.

_Thank you for finding this, buddy. This is for you._

Rick aimed at the gates and fired.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Negan finished his dinner (because Michonne had lost her appetite), he held his arm out to her for her to take. She thought about refusing again, but she didn't see the point.

_No matter what you do, he's going to win. You have to do this for Rick and Carl and Judith. You can survive this._

She reluctantly held on to his arm and he smiled. He led her to another part of the factory where there were black lines on the floor. They walked in silence, the only sound was the clicking of Michonne's heels on the floor.

As they approached a door, two guards opened it for him and stepped aside with a "Negan, sir". As they walked inside the room she immediately recognized it. It was his bedroom. Her heart sank.

He continued into the room as she stood at the closed door like a deer in headlights. He turned around and noticed her standing there. "It's ok" he said. "Sit down, please?" he asked, gesturing to the lounge chair. She slowly walked over to the chair, every step feeling more and more heavy. She felt dizzy and light headed.

_This can't happen. This can't be happening_  she thought. Everything in her was screaming to run for the door.

He moved over to the corner where he had a mini fridge. He reached in and brought out a bottle of wine. He grabbed two glasses and brought them back over. "Wine?" he asked, seemingly oblivious to her panic. Not waiting for her response, he poured some for both of them. He picked up his glass and held it towards her, trying to signal that she should pick up her's as well. When she didn't move, he clinked her glass that was still on the table. "To new relationships" he said, before chugging down his glass of wine.

Michonne scanned the room looking for a possible way to get out of this situation. She still had her katana strapped to her back. She knew she could kill him, but she also knew that that action would kill her family. She could kill herself, but that would lead to the same result. She was stuck. The hopelessness she felt seemed to cause her to deflate. She had never felt so helpless before.

When she snapped out of her thoughts, Negan was looking at her. He finally noticed the change in her demeanor and how she slumped over slightly. He got up and slowly walked behind her lounge chair. The hairs on her neck stood up, as she tried to anticipate his next move. "Let me help you relax" he whispered as he gently put two hands on her naked shoulders causing her to jump. She balled her hands into fists and dug her nails into her hands to keep herself from jumping out of the chair. "You're so tense" he murmured, and he began to massage her shoulders.

All of her muscles tensed even more, and she gritted her teeth at his touch. "You expect me to relax?" she hissed.

"I know you don't love me... or hell, even like me" he began, still massaging her shoulders "but I hope one day you might. I don't want to hurt you, or cause you pain. I want you to be my wife. My  _Queen_. With you by my side, we would rule all these other fuckers".

"If you want me to be your  _Queen_ , you won't do this" she said, standing up and turning around to look at him pleadingly. "If you do this I could never like or love you". Her words seemed to make him think, and he stopped massaging her for a moment. She looked into his eyes, searching for any hope that he would just let her leave.

"Nah..." he said "A deal is a deal".

Her heart sank again. He held her shoulders and turned her around so that her back was to him. She could feel him reaching into her hair and she shuddered. He unclipped the flowers that Sherry had put in there. He kissed the flowers before he dropped them onto the table.

He took the strap to her katana and slowly pulled it over her head. He put the katana down by the lounge chair.

_I won't beg, I won't make a sound. I won't give him that satisfaction_ , she decided. Her pride was all she had left.

She could feel his hands running down her bare back and she shivered again. She closed her eyes as a tear ran down her face. He ran his fingers along the seam between her back and the dress, and then kissed her back. She wondered how someone so evil could be so gentle.

"You're perfect" he mumbled.

"I hate you" she hissed.

He chuckled, and slowly started to pull down the front of her dress when an explosion rocked the factory.


	14. Chapter 14

Rick aimed at the gates and fired.

The rocket penetrated the first two gates, and then exploded into the third, knocking a hole through the defenses. The walkers chained to the gates started to go crazy, moaning and struggling against their chains. Some of them started to rip themselves free from whatever was holding them down. Other walkers were on fire.

The men who were on guard duty ran over to the giant hole in the fence in confusion, trying to figure out what was going on. They ran into the line of fire of the archers from the Kingdom, who skillfully and silently shot them in the head with arrows.

Rick gave a signal and the first team lead by Rosita, made their way through the hole in the gates. They had to tread carefully, killing any walkers that were in arms reach of them, making a path for others to follow. Once they got close enough to the walls of the factory, they scoped out the area, stepping over the dead guards and climbing on top of dumpsters, providing cover for the next group.

Rick moved through the destroyed gates with the second group. He knew that the explosion was sure to draw most of Negan's men to this area in the back of the factory. The second group quickly ran inside the gates and started to make their way all the way around the walls of the factory to the front of the building.

A third group, lead by Aaron and many Hilltop residents, began carefully cutting walkers free from their chains while the first group started shooting into the air and yelling, drawing the walkers towards them. As expected, the doors in the back of the factory opened and guards started to pour out with guns drawn. They were taken by surprise as the now freed walkers attacked, and the group on top of the dumpsters fired at them. The third group continued cutting more and more walkers loose to join in the melee.

Rick and the second group which included Glenn, Ezekiel and Shiva, Morgan, and Jesus, silently made their way to the front of the building. Although most of the guards were drawn to the chaos happening at the back, there were still snipers on duty. Once they got to the front, Rick made a second hand signal.

Suddenly, the sniper group that Carl was a part of started firing on the guards in the front of the factory from their hiding places in the tree line. Once the coast was clear, Rick aimed his last rocket launcher at the loading dock doors in the front of the factory causing them to explode.

The explosion was so loud it temporarily made Rick's ears ring. Rick looked up and saw Shiva crouching as if she were about to run, but Ezekiel quickly rubbed his hands down her fur, soothing her. When the smoke cleared somewhat, Rick's group ran in through the smoking hole with guns up, not knowing what to expect. They immediately were in a large factory room, and there were surprised people everywhere. There were a few smoking bodies on the floor of people who were standing too close to the loading dock when it exploded.

Rick was about to open fire on everyone, but made the split second decision to wait. Looking into the eyes of a woman nearby, he realized these people weren't a threat. "Get down!" he yelled and most of them dropped to the floor immediately. Just then, Shiva trotted her way into the room, and those who were slow to get on the floor dove for cover. "Where's Michonne?" he yelled, and he could see the confusion and fear on the people's faces. "The woman being held by Negan!" he screamed. A young girl who was laying on the floor suddenly put her hands up, causing Rick to turn towards her with his gun. "Wait!" she yelled "I know her, I know where she is. I can take you to her".

Rick left Glenn and other members of the group to watch the hostages in the factory room, as he, Morgan, Ezekiel, Shiva, and Jesus followed the girl through the factory. He held a gun to her back and told her if she tried anything she'd be shot on sight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne's eyes flew open. Negan froze. "What the fuck was that?" he asked. He turned and quickly went over to his window where smoke was starting to rise from outside. He couldn't see much but he could tell that something was on fire. All of a sudden, gunfire could be heard. Negan stalked over to his bedroom door and threw it open. "One of you stay here, the other one go see what's going on" Negan commanded.

Michonne could see one of the guards start to jog down the hallway before Negan closed the door again and turned back to her. "Shit" he said shaking his head "What a cock blocker". Suddenly, a second explosion shook the room and Michonne immediately knew it was Rick. Her heart leaped for joy.

She grabbed her katana and kicked off her heels so that she was barefoot. She knew she didn't hear the door lock behind Negan, so she sprinted for it. "Wait!" he yelled, but she was already at the door, running through it at full speed, knocking the door into the guard who was left outside.

She ran down the hallway in the direction that she had come. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she thought she could make it back to the cafeteria at least.

_I need to find Rick. I need to find Rick._  She kept repeating in her head.

The hallway she was running through seemed pretty much abandoned. She heard footsteps and yelling in the distance so she slowed down so that she didn't accidentally run into whoever was up ahead. She suddenly heard running coming from the hallway behind her and she knew it was Negan. She tried a door and to her relief it opened. She dove into the room and closed the door behind her quietly. The footsteps ran past her.

She turned around to examine the room she was in. It had lots of machines and engines in it that were no longer in operation. She noticed a large window and crept over to it to see what was happening outside. She looked down and she could see walkers all over the gates to the factory. She also saw people, standing on dumpsters, firing.

_Is that Rosita?_  She thought.  _It is! You can do this Michonne, you're almost home_.

She unsheathed her katana and used it to cut a slit in the side of her dress so she could run properly. She couldn't do anything about the fact that she had no shoes on, but at this point she would run through broken glass to get out of here.

She crept back over to the door of the room she was in and slowly opened it, hoping it wouldn't creak. She looked into the hallway and didn't see anyone. She cautiously stepped out of the room, holding up her katana, and made her way to the end of the hall. There were two doors, leading into two different hallways. She didn't know which way to go until she noticed the blue lines on the floor in the hallway to the left.

_Blue lines lead to the infirmary. Winston is there._

Michonne quickly ran down the hallway to the left, and as she turned a corner she ran directly into someone. She hit them so hard she fell backwards on to the floor. The other person fell too. She scrambled on her hands and knees in a panic, grabbing for her katana which had fallen out of her hands. As she jumped up and turned her weapon on whoever it was she hit, she was shocked to see the face of Rick.

Her mouth opened in a gasp that turned into a strangled cry. Her hands involuntary opened wide and she dropped her katana on the ground again. Her knees went weak and she started to sink into the floor.

Rick caught her just in time, picking her back up and hugging her so tightly it felt like he was trying to force her inside of him to keep her safe.

"Michonne... Michonne... oh my baby... its ok baby" he repeated over and over, rocking her. Both of them were sobbing, and grabbing at each other as if they couldn't get enough physical contact. It took a few minutes, that seemed like a few hours, for Michonne to realize that the two of them weren't alone.

She looked up into the faces of Sherry, Morgan, Jesus, some other guy she didn't know, and a...  _is that a tiger?_

The sight of the tiger startled her out of Rick's arms and she picked up her katana again. "It's ok baby. It's friendly" Rick said. She didn't know what a friendly tiger meant, but she wasn't going to put her katana down.

"Hello Michonne, my name is Ezekiel, and I guarantee that Shiva will not harm you. We are here to rescue you". Ezekiel said, raising his hands to show Michonne they meant no harm. Michonne still didn't put the katana down, staring at the tiger.

"Rick. We need to get Michonne out of here and we need to locate Negan" Jesus said.

"Negan is in the direction I came from" Michonne said, temporarily dragging her eyes from the tiger who was now licking her fur.

"OK. Jesus, Ezekiel and I will go after Negan, and you get Michonne out of here Rick" Morgan said.

"No!" Rick spat. "I'm going after him. He has to die".

"He will" said Jesus "but you have more important things to tend to. If we can, we'll capture him. If not, we'll kill him".

" _I_  need to kill him!" Rick said, yelling now.

Michonne looked up from her death glare with the tiger, and placed a hand on Rick's shoulder. "Rick.  _We_  need to go".

Once again, there was more being said in those five words.

_Rick, I know you're trying to protect me, and I want you to. But it's more important that we get out of here. I'm hurt, if I wasn't I would go after Negan myself. I need to get out of here, and I'm not going to leave you, so if you go on this mission I'm going with you, and we may not make it._

She quieted Rick in the way that only she could. "Ok" Rick said, turning towards Jesus. "But try to capture him". Jesus nodded and the group headed off in the direction Michonne had come from, with Shiva leading the way.

Rick turned to Sherry who he'd almost forgotten was there. He lifted his gun and said "get us out of here". Michonne immediately put her hand on Rick's and brought his gun down. "She's a friend" Michonne said to Rick, and then she reached over to hug Sherry. "Do you want to come with us?" Michonne asked her. Sherry smiled. "Hell yea!" she said.

Michonne turned to Rick. "We need to get Winston too, he's a nurse. Alexandria has no doctors".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Carl lay in the grass behind a bush. His gun was trained at the hole in the wall that his father had made with the rocket launcher. Rick had been in there for about 20 minutes now, and Carl had been staring at that one spot for so long that his eye was starting to spasm. Carl had heard lots of gun fire coming from the back of the factory, where the gates were down, but there was no real movement coming from the front.

Carl closed his eye to rest it for a moment. Suddenly another sniper whispered "Movement!". Carl's eye snapped open and he refocused on the hole. He could see people coming out. He immediately recognized his father's shape. As he tried to focus in a little more he noticed his father was carrying something, someone. It was Michonne.

Carl's heart dropped. Is she dead? Is she hurt? He looked through his scope again and he could see that she was moving. She was wearing a long blue dress like she had just come from a party, but Carl noticed that she had no shoes on. There were other people with them that Carl didn't recognize, a girl a little older than he was, and a man.

Carl suddenly remembered his job. He had to give them cover. He began searching the windows to make sure no one could shoot at them as they made their way over to the trees. Carl could see Rick was trying to move quickly, practically jogging towards the trees while carrying Michonne. When he got closer, Carl jumped up and ran to meet them. Rick gently put Michonne down, and Carl ran to her, almost tackling her before he remembered she was hurt.

He wrapped his arms around her and cried. She was crying too, kissing him on the forehead and in his hair. He hadn't seen her up close in days and he noticed that she seemed so much thinner and frailer than he remembered.

He and she didn't say a word. They just looked into each other's eyes. They had telepathy too.

Rick helped Michonne into one of the cars brought by the people from Hilltop. Michonne had said she trusted the two new people, Sherry and Winston, so Rick reluctantly let them get into the car with her. Rick gave a gun to Michonne, and then headed back to where the snipers were.

"Did you see anyone else come out?" he asked one of the snipers. "Glenn's group is bringing out some people, they look like hostages" the sniper said. Rick leaned over so he could see into the gun's scope. Sure enough, there were about 40 people being brought out through the hole in the front of the factory. All of them had their hands on their head and were walking in single file. Glenn and the others were pointing their guns at them.

"What are we supposed to do with all these people?" Another sniper said "Any of your communities got a jail?". There was silence. No one knew the answer to his question.

Rosita's group suddenly made an appearance from around the back of the factory. It seemed like her group took heavy casualties. There were a few people who were limping, some were being carried, and there were at least 10 who were not there.

"Send out a group to go retrieve group one" Rick ordered, and a woman jumped up to gather a group to help Rosita's group come back.

Rick kept waiting for Morgan, Jesus, and Ezekiel to make an appearance with Negan. They had been inside the factory for another 10 minutes when Rick had enough. "We need to go back in and get them. They've been in there too long" Rick said, frustrated. He jumped up and pulled out his gun, fully intending to go back in, when there was more movement.

Morgan and Jesus each had one of Negan's arms and was dragging him through the grass, as Ezekiel and Shiva took up the rear. Rick could see that Negan was still alive, and he was leaving a blood trail in the grass. Rick jogged over to where they were and before any words could be exchanged he kneed Negan in the face, causing his head to snap back. Rick then kicked Negan in the ribs over and over again until Morgan pulled Rick off.

Negan lay in the grass moaning from his wounds. Rick noticed that the trail of blood he was leaving was coming from his leg. It seemed Shiva had taken a bite out of him. To confirm this theory, Shiva began licking blood from her fur.

Rick smiled at the sight, and pulled out his gun. "Rick no!" Morgan yelled. "He has to die" Rick said calmly, focusing in on Negan's head. Morgan stood in front of Rick's gun. "Rick, he's gonna get what's coming to him. But we have to live long after he does. We're starting a new world, where our communities can live together in peace, and we can have law and order. We can't start the new world with a murder".

Rick was livid. He started to scream in Morgan's face. "Do you know what he did to Abraham? Michonne? Daryl? You saw what his men did to Carol right? He tried to kill me and Carl! How many other countless people did he kill? and you want to talk to me about murder!?" Jesus tried to stand between Morgan and Rick who was still holding his gun and shaking.

"Rick, Morgan is right. We need to find a better way to deal with him. We need to have a trial, where everyone he's hurt can talk and decide on what to do with him. If you want Carl and your baby to grow up in a just world, they need to know that you don't just kill people because they do bad things".

The look that Rick gave Jesus and Morgan made both of them take a step back. Rick was shaking in rage. Rick slowly put his gun back into his holster as if it took all of his willpower to do it. He walked over to Negan and savagely kicked him in the ribs again. He then turned around and walked off, muttering under his breath "I hope I fucking broke them".


	15. Chapter 15

Rick had been laying in bed watching Michonne sleep all night. When she finally got home, and Rick had time to study her closely, he could see she had lost some weight. Her arms were thinner than they were before, her eyes had bags that weren't there before, and there was something else in her eyes, a sadness that he couldn't pinpoint. He didn't want to bombard her with questions, so he let her take things at her own pace.

She had said she didn't want to go to see the doctor at Hilltop. She said the new nurse, Winston, had taken care of her, and she just needed rest. When they got back to Alexandria, it was late. She painfully lowered herself on to the couch. Carl brought a sleeping Judith over to her, and she held the baby close to her chest, rocking her, as tears ran down her cheeks. The sight of his two girls back together again brought tears to Rick's eyes, and as he looked at Carl he saw the boy was crying too. Carl plopped down on the couch next to Michonne and wrapped his arms around her shoulders, resting his head on her neck. Rick stood behind the couch and bent down, wrapping his arms around both Michonne and Carl, kissing both of them on the top of the head. The family stayed like this for a few minutes before they all headed up to bed.

As he studied her naked body he noticed the bruises on her ribs and face. The cut on her lip and on her right eye. She looked like she had been through so much, and all of it was for them. He was afraid to know how she got those bruises, and what other bruises she had that he couldn't see. As she slept, she seemed peaceful, and he was relieved that she could finally get some rest.

Not wanting to disturb her, but aching to touch her, Rick gently wrapped his arm around her hip, trying to avoid touching her rib cage. As soon as he touched her, she jumped with a start. Her reaction startled him and he jerked his hand away. Her eyes were wild and frightened until she realized where she was.

As she looked into his eyes her breathing slowed. "I'm... I'm sorry" he said "I didn't want to wake you, I just... I just wanted to hold you". She nodded, and laid back down. He scooted in closer to her and put his arm on her hip again, but she pulled it up to her waist, silently showing him where he could touch her without causing her pain. They laid there, snuggled together for a few minutes. He thought she had fallen asleep again when she broke the silence.

"I know you want to know what happened. I don't know if I can tell you yet without..." she paused. "I'll try to tell you" she said. He nodded into the back of her hair, and waited. She took a deep breath. "The second night I was there, one of Negan's guards took me from where I was staying. He put a blindfold on me, and tied my hands." She paused again, and Rick hoped she wasn't going to say what he was thinking she was going to say. "He was taking me somewhere, but he wouldn't tell me where. I wouldn't go with him, and he... he attacked me. He dragged me into a closet and beat me. He gave me this." She said pointing to her face. "And this" she said nodding towards her ribs.

The anger building in Rick caused him to bite his lip. His hand that was wrapped around her bunched into a fist, but she didn't seem to notice. "He tried to..." she breathed again, forcing the words to come out of her mouth "He tried to rape me. But I stopped him, I knocked him out... and then Negan killed him." Rick couldn't see her face, but he could tell from the shakiness of her voice that she was crying.

He nuzzled his face into her neck, but he could tell she wasn't done. "After Negan took me back, he asked me if I was going to carry out the deal that I made with him. I told him yes... I would do anything to keep you, and Carl, and Judith safe. He made me wear that dress I had on. He gave me dinner, like... like we were dating. He took me to his room... I tried to convince him not to do it, but he said 'a deal is a deal'... he started to take the dress off of me, and then you blew up the wall... and you saved me." She rolled over now, facing him. Her teary eyes looking into his eyes that were burning with anger. She put both hands on his face. "You saved me Rick. You stopped it from happening. I thought I'd never see you again."

He looked into the eyes of the woman he cared most about in the world. He took a thumb and gently wiped away the tears. He could tell she was being open, honest, and vulnerable with him, so he felt he should do the same.

"When you were gone, I was lost. I didn't eat, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't think. If it weren't for Carl and Judith, I would've sat in my room and starved to death. I need you... I need you to function. I felt like I'd failed as a man, I couldn't protect the woman I loved, she had to protect me. And I'm afraid that someone or something could take you away from me again, that someone else could hurt you. It terrifies me, because if I lose you..." his voice broke and tears began flowing freely from his eyes. "I wouldn't survive if I lost you again. I wouldn't want to."

He moved closer to her and looked directly into her eyes. "Michonne. I love you more than anything, more than my own life. My children love you.  _Our_  children. I want to spend every day that I have left on this Earth with you. You are such an amazing woman, more than I've ever deserved, but I want to spend the rest of my life trying to deserve you..."

He reached under his pillow and pulled out an engagement ring. When Michonne saw it her eyes got large and she looked at him in shock.

"Michonne, will you be my wife?" he asked her.

Her mouth dropped open, and she began to tremble. He could see more tears welling up in her eyes. Rick was nervous, he didn't expect that reaction. She seemed to be unable to speak. She suddenly nodded her head quickly, and threw her arms around Rick's neck.

Rick was overjoyed. He kissed her cheek, her neck, any part of her he could reach. They laid on the bed intertwined, clinging on to each other for dear life, until Michonne finally stopped crying enough for her to speak.

"Yes Rick Grimes. I'll marry you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Rick slipped the ring on Michonne's finger she had fallen asleep again. He quietly slipped out of the room to get Judith out of her crib, and attempt to make some breakfast.

As he walked downstairs, Carl was already sitting at the kitchen table reading a book. "Good mornin'" Rick said smiling, slipping Judith into her high chair. "Hey" Carl responded, not looking up. "Beautiful day isn't it?" Rick said, reaching for one of Judith's bottles from the cabinet. Carl noticed Rick's cheery tone of voice and curiously looked up from his book. "What is it?" Carl asked. Rick didn't say anything but he had a big smile on his face as he began to fix Judith a bottle of formula. Carl could read his father too well.

"You asked her?!" Carl asked excitedly. Rick still kept his mouth shut, mixing the contents of the bottle. Carl got up from his chair and quickly moved over to where his father was standing by the sink. "Dad!" he yelled impatiently. Rick turned to look at Carl and nodded his head. Carl gave his father a big smile. "I told you" Carl grinned. "Where is she?" Carl asked. "She's still sleeping" Rick said, "but I wanted to cook her breakfast... you know, breakfast in bed".

Carl patted Rick on the back "That's really sweet dad. Good luck with that." Carl joked, walking away. "Carl!" Rick whined. Carl knew Rick couldn't cook. "Ok fine, I'll make the powdered eggs, but you have to do the toast" Carl compromised. "Deal" Rick said "and because you're such a good son, you get to go visit Enid today." Carl rolled his eyes, but Rick could see the tiny smile on the corner of his lips.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne opened her eyes sleepily and looked around the room she shared with Rick. She was slightly saddened to see he was no longer laying next to her, but as she looked at the beautiful ring sitting on her finger, it made up for it. She lifted her hand up and moved it close to her face so she could get a better view.

_Where did he get this?_ _**When** _ _did he get this?_

She was so excited to finally be getting married to the man of her dreams. The man who understood her, appreciated her, respected her. She had never really wanted to be married before. She and Mike had talked about it back before everything happened, and they both decided that they didn't need to be married to have a family. She had never even thought of being married to Rick either. As far as she was concerned, they were as close as they could be.

But the fact that  _he_  wanted to marry  _her_  warmed her heart. She would go anywhere with him, do anything for him. If he wanted her to be his wife, she would be his wife.

She moved to get up from her bed when there was a knock on the door. "It's me Michonne" Rick called. He then entered the room carrying two plates of food. She sat up with a smile on her face.

"I... well, Carl and I... we made you breakfast" he said. She smiled as he placed the plate on her lap. She moved to the back of the bed so she could lean against the headboard as she ate. "It looks good! Carl must've made the eggs" she joked. Rick smiled and rolled his eyes. "Well he did if you must know, but I made the toast. And I didn't burn it" he said proudly. "Good boy" she smiled.

Eating in bed, talking to Rick her new fiancee, with all the good that happened just this morning she could almost forget about the bad of the past week... almost.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After breakfast, Rick walked over to the jail that Morgan had built in one of the houses. Seeing as Alexandria was the only community that had bothered to make a jail, naturally Negan was being housed there. Rick, Ezekiel, and Jesus, who had taken over as leader of the Hilltop as the residents had finally tired of Gregory's cowardice, had decided that one member of each community would be sent to guard Negan in shifts of three people at a time. It was the beginning of a community wide criminal justice system that they were trying to build.

Seeing as Alexandria took the burden of babysitting Negan, the other two communities took on holding the 40 prisoners taken from Negan's factory. Even though they were less of a threat than Negan, they still were being watched under guard, and people from all three communities were chipping in to guard them.

As Rick entered the jail he nodded at Eugene who was the guard on duty from Alexandria, and the two other guards from the Hilltop and the Kingdom. Rick continued to walk past them as Eugene said "Rick. As per the rules you cannot bring your firearm past this point. It will be confiscated and returned to you upon leaving the prison". Rick paused for a moment slightly annoyed, but slightly proud of Eugene for calling him out. Rick removed his gun and handed it over to Eugene.

He continued down the stairs into the area where Morgan had built a jail cell. Rick could see Negan laying on the cot in the cell. His ribs had been wrapped up by someone, probably Winston, and so had his leg. The gauze on his leg was red with blood that had seeped through. Rick smiled to himself and made a mental note to bring something nice for Shiva the next time he saw her.

"Wake up" Rick yelled, banging on the side of the jail cell. Negan weakly turned his head towards Rick. "What the  _fuck_  do you want" he moaned. "I talked to Michonne today". Negan opened one of his eyes slowly. "You did?" he asked, sounding slightly concerned. "She told me everything that happened while you held her prisoner." Rick said cooly. "How  _is_  my wife doing?" Negan asked. "You keeping her warm for me?"

If Rick had the keys to the cell he would've opened the cell and strangled Negan to death. "I told you when you took her, if you hurt her, I would fucking kill you" Rick said calmly. "See Negan, I'm just like you. I don't go back on my promises. And like you told Michonne, 'a deal is a deal'". Negan's eyes widened as Rick pulled a second gun out of his pants.


	16. Chapter 16

Rick cocked the gun and pointed it directly at Negan's head.

"Rick no!" Eugene yelled, coming out of nowhere and knocking Rick's hand upward. The gun went off and shot a hole into the ceiling.

Eugene tried to hold Rick on the floor, but Rick easily knocked him off. Rick tried to aim the gun at Negan a second time but the guards from the Kingdom and Hilltop stepped in, grabbing the gun and finally subduing Rick on the floor.

Negan watched the whole scene with eyes wide, from his cot. As the guards dragged Rick out of the room, Negan quietly muttered, "Fuck!".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick was escorted back to his home by Rosita and another guard from Hilltop. Rosita knocked on the door and Carl quickly opened it. Carl could tell by the looks on everyone's faces that this was serious. "Hey Carl, can you get Michonne please?" Rosita asked. Carl nodded and sprinted upstairs as Rick and the guards entered the house. Rick plopped on the couch, annoyed, as Rosita crossed her arms and stood by the stairs and the Hilltop guard stood awkwardly in the doorway.

Michonne came downstairs still buckling her robe, with Carl following close behind her. She took one look at Rosita's crossed arms and Rick's expression as he laid on the couch and she knew exactly what happened.

"How bad is it?" Michonne asked. Rosita looked surprised "You knew what he was going to do?". "No" Michonne answered "but I know what he did. How bad is it? Is Negan dead?". Rosita shook her head. "Eugene and the other guards stopped him in time, but there's a bullet hole in the ceiling of the prison now". There was silence for a while. "We need to figure out what to do now" Rosita said, looking towards Rick.

"I'm sitting right here" Rick said "Don't talk about me as if I'm not here."

Michonne and Rosita both ignored him. "You're pretty much the second in command here, and you're the co-constable" Rosita continued "You decide what happens next."

Michonne took a moment and breathed out a sigh. "He's on house arrest. You won't see him walking around, I'll make sure of it". The guard from the Hilltop said "You need me to keep watch?". "No" Michonne said "I'll handle it". As Rosita walked towards the door she turned to Michonne and quietly whispered "Congratulations", nodding at her ring, before she and the guard left.

"Carl, I know you wanted to go visit Enid. This would be a good time." Michonne said to him. He shook his head, understanding she needed to talk to his dad. He gave her a hug and then called "Bye dad" as he made a quick exit.

Michonne walked over to the couch and kicked Rick with the side of her leg. "Move" she commanded. He quickly sat up and moved over so she could sit. She sat down next to him, resting her legs on his lap and her head on one of the couch pillows.

"Rick, what are you doing?" she sighed. He stared at the table in front of him, avoiding her eyes. He didn't answer. "Rick, talk to me" she tried again. He blew out a breath. "He hurt you, he tried to have sex with you. One of his men beat you and almost raped you. He can't get away with that".

"Is this about me? Or is this about you?" she asked. "What do you mean?" he asked, not looking at her.

"If you had asked me, I would have told you that although he's done evil, horrible things, although I hate him, he also showed concern for me, and treated me fairly... in his own way. He deserves to be punished, but he also deserves a trial. Carl and Judith need for him to have a trial, so they can see that we aren't killers, like we were when we weren't behind these walls. If you had asked me, I would've told you I didn't want you to do that. But you didn't ask me, because it was about you."

He continued to stare at the table.

"You told me, he made you feel like you had failed as a man. But you didn't fail Rick, I'm here with you. I'm safe. All that anger you feel towards him you can let it go now. He will never hurt me or anyone else we love again, whether he dies or not."

Michonne reached out and grabbed Rick's hand. He slowly linked his fingers with hers.

"You really screwed up Mr. Grimes" she said, teasingly.

"Yea, I did Mrs. Grimes" he replied, kissing her hand on top of her ring.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Michonne headed upstairs to take a shower and get dressed. There was a meeting in the church that night for all residents of the three communities to come and speak about what they suggest be done with the 40 hostages being held. Rick was supposed to be the main representative for Alexandria, but since he was on house arrest, Michonne was now in charge.

She quickly shrugged off her robe and dropped it on the bed. As she made her way into the bathroom, a wave of nausea hit her. She barely had time to put her head over the toilet before her breakfast came back up. She kept retching over and over until there was nothing left in her stomach. She slid down onto the floor of the bathroom, her head spinning.

She was confused.  _Was there something in those eggs? That's really all I've eaten in a while, but no one else is sick._  She clutched her stomach as she could feel it still spasming, trying to push up nothing but air.

_Ugh... I haven't felt this sick since..._

Michonne froze. She didn't dare finish the thought, because she knew she hadn't felt that sick since she was pregnant with Andre.

She covered her mouth in shock.

_No... it was too fast..._  She had only officially been together with Rick for a few weeks. They hadn't used condoms, but neither of them were thinking about this. There were so many other things on their minds.

She flushed the toilet and pulled herself up from the floor and moved over to the mirror. She examined her flat belly, looking for any sign of a pregnancy. There were none.

_Michonne, calm down. Nausea doesn't mean you're pregnant. You've been through so much in the past few days your body is probably just tired. And you haven't been eating right either. There's no way._

As she continued to examine herself, Rick walked into the bathroom causing her to jump.

"You ok?" he asked. "Yea" she said, but he could tell something was bothering her. "You still mad at me?" he asked. She smiled, "I'm not mad at you Rick, I just wish you'd think before you act sometimes." "I do think, but not always with my brain" he growled, grabbing her waist and pushing her up against him. She smiled for a second, and then her face changed in a way he couldn't understand.

"Rick. Did you ever think about having more children?" she asked. He frowned slightly, not understanding where this question was coming from. "I didn't think about it, no. I'm happy with our family the way it is." She avoided his eyes and he immediately knew something was wrong. He gently cupped her face and lifted her head to look at him. "What is it Michonne?".

She turned her back to him. She knew this was the time to tell him about Andre, but she was finding it difficult to form words. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You can tell me anything Michonne. Do... do you want to have a baby?"

She turned back around and took a breath, looking into his eyes this time. "I had a baby" she said "I had a son, his name was Andre. He was three when he died." Now words were tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop them. "His father was supposed to be watching him, protecting him. I had gone out on a run, and when I got back, the camp was destroyed, overrun with walkers. I ran through it, looking for my boyfriend and my baby. I was crying out for them, but everywhere I turned there were walkers, and people being eaten. I found our tent... I just saw his little shoe... and a blood stain... that was all that was left."

She started to bawl uncontrollably. Rick looked on in shock. He had no idea that she had a child, and what she had gone through before she met him. He didn't say anything, but he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry. He couldn't believe how strong this woman was after the trauma that she'd been through.

As she cried he just rubbed her back and whispered "It's ok baby". Soon her sobs turned to sniffles, and she looked into his eyes again, her eyes now red and wet.

"My boyfriend was weak. He didn't have what it took to live in this world. He couldn't protect his son, he couldn't protect himself. You're not like him. You do whatever it takes to make sure the people around you are safe, and I love you for it. I respect you for it". She paused again, unsure of how to continue. She decided honesty was the best policy.

"Rick. I just threw up before you came in here... the last time I felt that sick... I was pregnant with Andre."

He just looked at her confused. "What are you saying?" he asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Rick, I might be pregnant".

"Really?" he asked excitedly "Do you know for sure?"

"No. I... I think it might be too early to tell. But I might be."

He got quiet and nodded his head. She searched his face for something. "Rick, how do you feel about that?"

He looked back up at her. "You're my wife. I love everything about you. I love anything that comes from you. Anything that comes from us. I'm happy, either way." He kissed her on the lips.

"Come take a shower with me" she commanded. "Yes ma'am" he replied.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Michonne made her way over to the church she could see people everywhere. A large amount of people from the Kingdom had tied their horses up to the trees surrounding the church. A large group from the Hilltop had parked their vehicles in the streets of Alexandria. And almost all the residents of Alexandria were in attendance. The church was so packed full of people that the meeting had to be moved outdoors to the church's lawn. Some of Negan's captive people were in attendance, with their hands tied.

As Michonne walked closer she was overjoyed to see Glenn and Maggie had come back with the people from the Hilltop. She quickly ran over to Maggie and gave her a big hug as Glenn watched, grinning.

"Michonne! Oh my God, are you ok? I heard about everything that happened with Negan... I heard you were hurt?" Maggie asked, looking at the cuts on Michonne's face with concern.

"I was... but I'm feeling better now" Michonne asked. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine and the baby's fine" Maggie said, "healthy as a horse". Michonne nodded, feeling relieved.

"Are you guys coming back to stay?" she asked. "The doctor said I need to come back in a few days to get checked again, but I can come home until then. I'm supposed to be resting though." Maggie said.

"Where's Rick?" Glenn asked. Michonne paused, unsure of how to tell Glenn what happened. "He's... dealing with some things..." Michonne said cryptically.

Maggie frowned. "Michonne, what happened?". Maggie then noticed Michonne's ring and her voice changed to excitement " _Michonne, what happened?_ "

Michonne smiled. "He proposed this morning." Maggie let out a squeal and gave Michonne another hug, followed by Glenn. "That's great, I'm so happy for you guys" he said. "Now we have another married couple to hang out with... but where is the lucky guy?"

Michonne looked away, and then reluctantly said "I had to put him on house arrest... he... he tried to shoot Negan."

"Did he get him?" Glenn asked. "No, the guards at the prison stopped him" Michonne said. "What a shame." Glenn replied.

"Look, we need to start the meeting soon so I have to go, but I'll come talk with you guys after ok?" Michonne said, changing the subject. She then left to find Ezekiel and Jesus, as the three of them were supposed to be running the meeting.

"Hi Michonne, I heard about Rick. How's he holding up?" Jesus asked. "As well as he could be. Obviously, he'd rather be here". Jesus nodded. "So shall we start?" Ezekiel chimed in. Jesus and Michonne nodded, and Ezekiel began to speak.

"We're all here today to decide the fate of the 40 people taken from Negan's compound at the factory. These people have been living at both the Hilltop and the Kingdom, and all are welcome to weigh in and offer suggestions on what should be done with these people. At the end of this meeting we will vote for leniency or execution. Once one of those two choices are decided, we will have a second hearing to determine the extent of the leniency or the terms of execution. I hearby open the floor."

There was silence for a while, and it seemed like no one wanted to be the first to speak. Suddenly Michonne spotted Sherry standing up from where she was sitting near a tree, and walk to the front next to Ezekiel.

"Hello, my name is Sherry and I was livin' at Negan's compound just like these people. I just wanted to say that although we lived with him, it doesn't mean we're bad people. We had to do things to survive, just like y'all had to. We didn't agree with everything that he did, but when you have few choices, what do you do? Can y'all honestly say that you're innocent? That you didn't go along with things you didn't agree with just to survive? If you can't honestly say that, then how can you judge us?"

Michonne noticed a few people glaring at Sherry. One man that Michonne didn't recognize got up to speak.

"My name's Bill and I live at the Kingdom. I remember that girl. A few months back she was with the group that came to pick up Negan's tribute from the Kingdom. She was part of the group that threatened us and extorted us for supplies! Why isn't she chained up with the rest of those bastards? All of them are thieves and they should've been executed on sight. Keeping them in our communities, feeding them with our food, is a waste of our resources. Negan and his little soldiers all need to die!"

Some people started clapping and cheering at Bill's comment. Someone else yelled "We should shoot them all right now!"

Michonne stood up. Most of the cheering and clapping died down as almost everyone there knew she had been kidnapped by Negan and that Rick had formed the attack party to save her. She started speaking.

"My name is Michonne, I'm the acting leader of Alexandria in place of Rick. I was captured and held by Negan for 4 days. While there, I got a good glimpse of how Negan controlled his people. Most of them weren't soldiers, most of these people here weren't the ones who were threatening your people. Yes, they benefited from the evil that Negan did, but they may not have done that evil themselves." Michonne then pointed to Sherry. "Sherry is not a prisoner here. She is my guest. She was kind to me those four days that I was a prisoner. She protected me, she comforted me. She was one of Negan's wives..." Michonne said, eliciting gasps of surprise from some of the crowd. "She was his wife not by choice, but by necessity, just as I was forced to do, to save the ones I loved. She helped me escape. I'm not excusing the behavior of anyone, but before you judge these people, think of what you've done in the last 2 years to stay alive. If someone else was judging you, how would you want them to vote?"

The crowd was quiet for a while. An unfamiliar woman stood up. "My name is Karen and I'm from the Hilltop community. In the beginning, the first time we saw Negan, he showed up at our community with armed men, he made us all kneel down, he sang eeny, meeny, miney, mo, and he beat my son's head in with a baseball bat and made us all watch." The woman wiped some tears from her eyes. "From that day, I've always felt that that monster and all those who stood with him needed to die. But as the years have gone on, I've gotten tired of hating these people. I've gotten tired of hating anyone. The world is a mess. I want to work towards a better future where we don't have to worry about killing each other. I would be willing to pardon these people, if they prove that they are not a threat to what we're trying to build." The woman then returned to where she was standing.

Ten more people came up to speak, including Morgan, Jesus, and three of the prisoners who begged the crowd for leniency. Most of the people who spoke were for leniency for the captured prisoners. The meeting ended with a vote. Everyone in attendance dropped a paper into one of two boxes for leniency or execution. Afterwards, Ezekiel, Jesus, and Michonne counted the ballots in front of the crowd.

"Execution received 38 votes, Leniency received 52 votes" Jesus read. "According to vote, the 40 prisoners being held at the Hilltop and the Kingdom have received leniency. The terms of their leniency will be voted on in three days time". The prisoners who were present started to clap, and so did many of the spectators. Sherry wiped tears from her eyes, and made her way over to Michonne giving her a hug.

"Thank you for defendin' me" Sherry said, smiling at Michonne. "I told you I would repay you somehow. You have been so kind to me, I appreciate it." Sherry just smiled. "Hey would you like to come over for dinner tomorrow? Rick and I are having a few people over and we would love to have you". "Sure" Sherry said "Hangin' out in the medical building with Winston gets borin' really quick". "Tell him he's invited too" Michonne said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Michonne got back home, she was exhausted. She walked into the house and noticed it was dark. It looked like no one was home.

_He wouldn't... he wouldn't leave. Would he?_

Michonne raced up the stairs, throwing open the door of their bedroom. Rick was laying on the bed with Judith sitting on his chest playing with his hair. She breathed out a sigh of relief.

Rick looked up quickly, startled and concerned. "What's wrong?".

"Nothing. Nothing's wrong." she said smiling, and then plopped on the bed. "Where's Carl?" Michonne asked, taking off her shoes. "He heard Glenn and Maggie were back. He asked to visit with them, I told him be home by 10." Michonne nodded. She started to take off her jeans. "What was the vote?" Rick asked. Michonne put on a pair of shorts and then slowly got into bed. "They voted for leniency." she said, taking a smiling Judith from Rick.

Judith climbed onto Michonne's chest and gave her a sloppy kiss on the cheek. "Hi baby girl" Michonne said in a sing song voice she used only with Judith. Rick moved closer to them on the bed and whispered to Judith "You wanna show mama what we've been working on all night?". Judith smiled. "Say mama" Rick prodded. Judith gave Michonne a grin and then said "mama".

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, Michonne burst into tears.


	17. Chapter 17

_**This is the final chapter of this story, but this is the first story out of four so stay tuned. Thank you so much to everyone who took time out of their day to read my story and write a comment. For fic writers, the only payment we get is feedback and comments, and we don't know that you're there and enjoying what you're reading until you literally tell us. So I hope you like this final chapter, enjoy, and tell me what you think!** _

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

The next afternoon, Michonne and Rick began setting up for their party. Although most people had noticed Michonne's ring, they thought it would be nice to have an official engagement party. When Michonne practically begged Rick to bring the family to Alexandria she never imagined that a few months later she and him would be throwing their engagement party in their own home, and possibly have a baby on the way. She couldn't even imagine that a few days ago. It was amazing how quickly things could change, for better or for worse.

Michonne was in the kitchen chopping up potatoes in her first attempt at making homemade french fries, as Judith played with a ball on the floor. Carl was sweeping the floor in the living room, and Rick was putting chairs out in the backyard as it was a beautiful day.

"Mom" Carl called from the living room. Michonne was startled. This was the second time he ever called her that, the first time being when she was about to be taken away by Negan and he didn't know if he'd ever see her again. She turned around slowly. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen with the broom in his hand. He must've noticed her surprise as he looked a little awkward.

"Do you mind if I call you that?" he asked softly. She smiled and shook her head. "No, not at all. I... I just don't want you to feel like you have to. You had a mom, and I know she'll always be your mom".

Carl nodded. "Yea, she'll always be my mom, but you can be my mom too" he said. "And Judith is already calling you mama". Judith, hearing her name, loudly babbled "mamamamama" making both of them smile.

"I know we are really good friends, and we tell each other everything" Carl started "so I wanted to ask you... What happened to you, when you were with Negan?". Carl noticed the smile quickly left Michonne's face. She paused for a moment not knowing how to put into words what happened to her to a 15 year old boy.

She gestured to the kitchen table and both of them sat. "When I was there, one of his men tried to hurt me. That's why I'm so banged up now" she said carefully.

"Did he try to rape you?" Carl asked quietly. Michonne was shocked. She knew Carl wasn't really a child anymore, but she was surprised that his mind would automatically go there, until she remembered that Carl had almost been raped himself, by a group of men while they were on the road.

She looked at him and he stared back expectantly. "Yes." she admitted.

He looked down for a moment. "Did Negan rape you?" he asked. "No" Michonne said firmly, grabbing Carl's hand "No. You and your dad came just in time and saved me. And I'll forever be grateful for that."

Carl continued to look down. "You were only there because of us anyway. And you got hurt because of us."

Michonne squeezed Carl's hand, making him look up. "Carl, I would do anything for you. Anything. That's what happens when you love someone." she paused "And that's what moms do". He gave her a crooked smile and she smiled back. They sat in a comfortable silence for a few moments, and she was about to get up to continue chopping potatoes when Carl suddenly said "I would do anything for Enid".

Michonne knew that this wasn't a simple statement. He was trying to tell her that he loved Enid. She knew that he and Enid spent a lot of time together, but she had no idea how serious it was getting. She could see he was waiting for her to say something.

"Have you told her?" Michonne asked. "No" Carl said "but I think she knows". Michonne nodded. "If that's how you feel, you should tell her anyway". Once again they sat in silence.

Carl was about to get up and continue sweeping the living room when Michonne said "would you want another baby brother or sister?". Carl froze. He knew she was trying to tell him something.

"No way!" he said "really?". Michonne smiled, "I'm not sure yet, but I think so". Carl looked thoughtful, and then his expression suddenly got dark. "It's dangerous" he said " I don't want something to happen you." Michonne knew that Carl had to put his mother down after she died during a C-section with Judith.

"You're right, it is dangerous" she said "and I don't know what will happen, but all we can do is hope that everything will be ok. And if it's not, remember what I said about moms, they'll do anything."

Carl patted her hand "If you and dad are happy, then I'm happy."

Michonne and Carl hugged, and then they both went back to their tasks.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Guests started showing up for the party around noon. Carl busied himself with handing out food to guests, while Michonne and Rick made small talk. When Enid showed up with Glenn and Maggie, Carl subtly snuck off with her somewhere. Michonne immediately noticed, but she didn't say anything. As more and more of her family and friends arrived, Michonne truly appreciated what she had. She realized that no one, not even Negan, could destroy this community.

There was another knock at the door and Sherry and Winston arrived. Michonne greeted both of them and welcomed them in.

As everyone ate, Rick pulled Michonne into the kitchen. "You ready to do this?" Rick asked her, wrapping his hands around her waist. She shrugged. "It's not like they don't already know" Michonne said, raising her ring finger. "Yea" he said absentmindedly, but Michonne could see he wasn't even listening to her, his eyes were running up and down her body. "Rick, stop it" she said, grinning. "What? We have a little time until people miss us" he replied kissing her neck and running his hands down her back until they rested on her butt.

Michonne rolled her eyes. "You don't learn huh? At the rate we're going we'll end up with four kids." He chuckled. "So you know for sure then?" he asked. "Not yet" she replied. He kissed her again, dipping his tongue into her mouth and tasting her. "As much as I love this, we need to get back to our party, we're being rude." she explained. Rick reluctantly let go of her butt, but he held her hand as they walked back out into the party.

Rick picked up a fork and lightly tapped it against a glass to get everyone's attention. All the guests turned and looked towards them expectantly. Michonne immediately noticed Carl and Enid were nowhere to be found.

"Michonne, Carl, Judith and I would like to thank everyone for coming and being a part of our get together tonight. We know that there is a lot going on with the trials, and with Negan's hearing being tonight we wanted to have something positive before all of that happens. We have all been through a lot, we have all lost so much." Rick said, looking over at Rosita and then Sasha who had just been given permission to get out of bed by Winston that day. "We have a lot of loss in our lives, but we can still find happiness" now he was looking at Michonne. She looked back into his eyes and smiled. "So Michonne and I would like to announce that we're engaged, and we are going to get married in 5 weeks, after the trials are over."

"Woooo!" Glenn yelled, and everyone started clapping. Rick then reached over quickly and swept Michonne off her feet, leaning her back to give her a dip kiss. This elicited a huge round of applause from the guests and a moan from Michonne. Rick bit her lip and then moved back to look into her eyes as if they were the only ones in the room. "Stop it Grimes" Michonne whispered lustily. He just smiled and stood her back up.

Maggie was the first out of her seat, hugging Michonne then Rick, then followed by the rest of the guests.

After the congratulations Michonne headed upstairs to the bathroom. As she passed Carl's room she noticed the door was slightly ajar. She stopped and peeked through the slit in the door. She was shocked to see Carl laying on his bed on top of Enid, the two of them kissing passionately. Enid's hands were gripping Carl's hair and back, and Carl was pressing himself into her. Michonne didn't know what to do, what she should do. Being a mom to a teenaged boy was new to her.

She decided to trust Carl. He had lived the majority of his childhood in the world the way it was now, he was extremely mature and responsible for his age, and she knew he wouldn't do anything stupid. She hoped... Besides, their clothes were still on, that was a good sign.

She sighed and walked towards the bathroom. Rick was going to have to have a talk with his son...  _their_  son... and soon.

_Maybe someone should have had a talk with Rick and I_ , Michonne thought to herself and she chuckled.

As Michonne entered the bathroom another intense wave of nausea passed through her and she vomited again.

Immediately she knew for sure. She was pregnant.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Towards the end of the party Carl and Enid snuck back downstairs separately, hoping no one noticed they were gone for so long. Carl got Judith who was being held by Aaron and he walked around with her as if he were gone because he were changing a diaper or getting her a bottle. Enid tried to squeeze onto the couch next to Glenn and Maggie as if she had been there the whole time. Michonne was the only one who seemed to notice their return. Carl tried to avoid her eyes, but he saw her looking at him from across the room. He could never fool Michonne.

The party ended in a few hours as everyone was planning on going to Negan's hearing later on in the evening. Maggie, Rosita, and Sasha stayed after to help Michonne clean up. Before the four of them made their way into the kitchen to wash and dry dishes, Michonne pulled Rick aside.

"Rick, you need to talk to Carl about Enid". Rick looked confused "What about her?". "I caught them upstairs..." her voice trailed off. Rick stared at her. Michonne rolled her eyes at his confusion. "Kissing, making out. It seemed serious. And he told me he loves her." "Oh" Rick responded, finally understanding. "I would talk to him, but I think he needs his father when it comes to this." she explained. Rick grinned "I'm not the best person to give relationship advice". Michonne smiled, "Or advice about protection". He laughed, kissing her. "And also... I know now... we're having a baby for sure" she added.

He grabbed her and lifted her in the air spinning her around. He then put her down and dropped to his knees kissing her stomach. He rested his head against her belly and stayed there just breathing her in. She gently stroked his hair. "Rick, I wasn't looking for this, I didn't know that I wanted this, but now that it's happening... I'm so happy". He looked up at her, tears forming in his eyes. "I am too" he said.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rick knocked on Carl's bedroom door. "Yea?" he heard Carl call from inside. Rick walked in and Carl was sitting on his bed reading a comic book.

"Hey" Rick said, sitting on the bed awkwardly. "Hey" Carl said, looking at Rick. "I... I wanted to talk to you about something" Rick began. Carl cut him off "I already know... about the baby... Michonne told me."

Rick was surprised, but he knew that Carl and Michonne were close and talked about pretty much everything. "How do you feel about it?" Rick asked. "I told her that I was happy as long as you guys are happy." Rick nodded. "Well I'm glad. But that's not what I wanted to talk to you about".

Carl looked slightly surprised. "Michonne said she saw you and Enid... in your bedroom..." Rick said. Carl's eyes got round and he looked slightly mortified. Rick's face turned red.

"We... we were just kissing dad... it wasn't... we didn't do anything" Carl explained. "I know" Rick said "I just wanted to explain to you... you're old enough to..." Rick sighed, running his hand down his face.

Carl realized Rick was struggling and he tried to put him out of his misery. "We're not having sex dad" Carl offered. Rick's head snapped up. "We're not going to... not any time soon... and if we did I know we have to use protection". Rick just looked at Carl in shock. Carl smiled at the expression on Rick's face.

"I'm not a kid anymore dad. In the prison I overheard a lot of... things. And sometimes... sometimes I overhear you and Michonne..." Carl said awkwardly. Now it was Rick's turn to look mortified.

"I just put a pillow over my head, or put headphones on. But, don't worry, I'm not going to get Enid pregnant".

Rick's mouth was hanging open slightly and he rubbed his eyes with his hands. He couldn't believe his son was overhearing him having sex.

"Is that it?" Carl asked. "Yea..." Rick said. "I'm... I'm sorry, we'll be more quiet..." he turned beet red again.

Carl nodded as Rick quickly stood up and walked out of Carl's bedroom. When he closed the door Carl laughed to himself quietly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Since everyone was going to Negan's trial in a few hours (Michonne took Rick off of house arrest just for the trial and personally checked him for any concealed weapons), Carl volunteered to bring Judith over to Ms. Ellie's house, the woman who watched Judith while Rick and Carl went on Michonne's rescue mission. He just didn't tell his parents that he was making another pit stop afterwards.

Carl walked over to the jail where Tobin and two other guards were watching Negan. As he entered, Tobin said "Hey Carl, what are you doing here?". Carl looked Tobin in the eye. "I came here to talk to Negan." Tobin looked skeptical, "Does Michonne know you're here?". Carl decided to be honest. "No. But I need to talk to him. You can check me if you want, I don't have any weapons. I'll be really quick."

Tobin looked at the other guards. They shrugged. "Look" he said, "I'm going to have to check you for weapons, and then I have to go down there with you". Carl nodded.

After he was checked, Tobin followed him downstairs to Negan's cell. Negan was laying on the cot and looked like he was asleep. He was completely wrapped up in bandages, but his leg wound had finally stopped bleeding.

Carl moved closer to the cell and the movement made Negan wake up with a start. He moved his eyes over to where Carl stood, glaring at him. "Hey kid" Negan said weakly. Carl continued to stare at him, trying to figure out how this man who was now so weak and feeble managed to terrorize so many people.

"Still got that evil ass stare huh?" Negan said to himself. "Just like your mama".

Carl gripped the bars to the cell. "Don't you dare talk about her!" he yelled.

Negan looked surprised. "Sorry kid. You know I didn't hurt her right?" he asked.

"Only because we stopped you" Carl shot back. Negan looked up at the ceiling "Yea, you're probably right. But still... that's gotta count for something right?".

Carl continued to glare.

"You know, I was fucking serious when I said I didn't want to kill you kid. That one eyed look makes you look like a badass. If I ever had a kid I would want him to be just like you".

Carl didn't say anything. Then suddenly he asked "why did you do all those bad things?"

Negan looked confused. "What bad things?"

"Killing people, stealing, raping people? Why did you do it?"

Negan paused for a moment. "I killed people because if I didn't kill them their groups would want to attack me, so I killed one so that others wouldn't die. I stole from others so that my people would live. And I didn't rape anyone, the women I was with all agreed to the terms of being my wife."

"But you forced them to!" Carl yelled again.

Negan shrugged. "But they agreed".

Carl rolled his eyes. "You're sick". Negan shrugged again "Yea, probably".

Carl turned to leave but Negan called him back. "Hey kid, you think they're gonna kill me?".

Carl shrugged. "I don't know, but if they don't. I will."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There were twice as many people in Alexandria for Negan's hearing as there were for the hearing for the prisoners. This seemed to be the only thing anyone in either of the communities were talking about, and everyone wanted to hear and see what would happen to him. Michonne, Rick, and Carl made their way over to the church lawn where people were congregating in large groups. As Rick walked past, people would pat him on the shoulder or say "good to see you Rick". It was obvious that everyone had heard about his attempt on Negan's life and many felt the same way he did.

As they walked through the crowd, Rick suddenly stopped walking and froze as if he'd seen something. He then ran off into the crowd causing Michonne and Carl to run after him in confusion. When they caught up to him he was hugging an injured but alive Daryl and crying. To Michonne's surprise Daryl was crying too. Michonne watched on happily as the two best friends held on to each other tightly.

"I thought you were gonna die" Rick said to Daryl. "I'm so sorry... we had to leave you at Hilltop. I couldn't be there for you."

"It's ok man" Daryl said, "I understand. I know you had to take care of shit."

"How are you doing?" Rick asked.

"The bullet grazed an artery, but the doc sewed me back up. He said if it had moved a millimeter in either direction it would've completely burst the artery and I would've bled to death".

Rick just nodded. "I'm glad you're ok".

"I heard about the announcement you two made" Daryl said, looking over to Michonne now. "It's about damn time".

Michonne smiled "Better late than never huh?" she offered.

They spoke with Daryl for a while, but the meeting had to start so they left him and made their way up to the front.

Michonne allowed Rick to take his place in front of the crowd with Jesus and Ezekiel. Suddenly, three guards arrived practically dragging Negan who couldn't walk because of his broken ribs and chewed up leg. People in the crowd started booing, some even threw things at him as he was dragged to the front. As Michonne saw Negan again for the first time since that night, she felt another bout of nausea, and it had nothing to do with her pregnancy. She couldn't quite interpret how she felt about him, disgust was close to the feeling but it wasn't exactly the right word, she definitely wasn't afraid, she was slightly sympathetic, maybe she even felt... pity. She knew that he could have really hurt her or killed her if he wanted to, but he didn't. He actually protected her against Rick, his own guard. He fed her and allowed her to get medical help when he didn't have to. But he tried to force her to have sex with him, and for that she just couldn't forgive him.

Negan looked up and glanced at Rick, and Michonne could see the fear in his eyes. Rick just scowled and turned away. On the outside he looked calm, but Michonne knew him too well. She could tell he was holding back his rage. Michonne quickly glanced at Carl and she was shocked to see him staring at Negan with the same expression in his eyes. She took a hand and ran it through his hair, causing him to break his intense stare at Negan.

Ezekiel started "We are here to decide the fate of Negan the leader of the Saviors, who was captured in the raid that took place two days ago. All are welcome to weigh in and offer suggestions at to what can be done with Negan. At the end of this meeting we will vote for leniency which can include banishment, or life imprisonment, or we will vote for execution. I hearby open the floor.

Unlike the first hearing, there was a sudden rush of people talking at once. So many people wanted to weigh in that Jesus had to make them line up and wait their turn so that they spoke one at a time.

One man from Hilltop talked about how Negan's men beat him when their tribute was too small, even though it was literally half of everything they had. A woman from Hilltop spoke about how her child had to go to bed hungry every other night during the winter because crops couldn't be grown during the cold winter months, and any food that was found on runs had to be conserved so that Negan's men could get half. Glenn talked about how he, Daryl, Rosita and Michonne had been kidnapped by Negan's men and locked in a van for almost 24 hours. He talked about how Daryl had been shot and almost died.

Morgan stepped up to the front. "We've all killed to survive... we've hurt those who wanted to do us harm. That's how we got here. But now that we're here we have a chance to change all that. We have a chance to start over, we can rebuild and change things as we go. We have an opportunity to do things better. I think he should live because we're better than that. Better than  _him_."

Sasha stepped up and talked about how Negan beat the man that she loved to death in front of her. She said how she sees his headless body in her nightmares every night. She told the crowd that she didn't want him executed though, she wanted him to spend his life behind bars like an animal. She felt it was the best punishment.

To Michonne and Carl's surprise, Rick got up to speak. "When I look at this man, all I see is a monster. A predator, who preyed on anyone who was weaker or more vulnerable than him. This predator threatened my son and almost killed him, he threatened my life and almost killed me, he threatened my wife and almost..." Rick's voice broke for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "he almost violated her... and I will not sleep soundly until he's dead. Most of you already know that I tried to kill him, and I was wrong for the way that I did it. I was selfish. I only saw my own hurt, I didn't take into consideration everyone else who's suffered more than I have. I took the decision out of everyone else's hands. But now that we're all here, I hope you vote for him to be executed. If he is not being executed, he will not be allowed to stay in this town where my family lives. You'll have to deal with him yourselves." Rick then sat back down.

The crowd was quiet for a while. Ezekiel turned to Negan who had been sitting on a chair, watching all the speeches quietly. "Would you like to say something for yourself?" Ezekiel asked him. Negan, looking a little intimidated, nodded.

"Uh... all this time I thought I was doing something good. I was trying to restore some fucking order. Get things back to where they were." he paused, and then suddenly regained his confidence "I know what it takes for people to survive, and it's someone like  _me_. Someone to keep everyone in line, someone to keep everyone preoccupied so they're not focused on how goddamn miserable they are. I was saving lives. You can say what you want, but I kept my people fed and alive. That's what all  _you_  fucking people are trying to do. I know I was a hardass, but I was fair. I was fucking honest. And I kept my fucking promises."

The crowd was silent again.

Jesus spoke up. "We are now going to vote on Negan's fate. You will either drop a ballot into the box for leniency, or for execution".

Just like the night before, people lined up to cast their vote. Michonne, Rick, and Carl waited on line like everyone else. Rick had made it clear that he voted for executing Negan, Michonne also thought that was the best decision, but she was curious as to what Carl thought. She knew how fiercely protective both of her men were of her, and she guessed that he also would vote for execution.

After the vote, Rick, Ezekiel, and Jesus tallied up the ballots.

This time, Rick read the results. "Execution received 89 votes, leniency received 42 votes. According to the votes, Negan has received an execution order. His method of execution will be voted on tomorrow, after the hearing deciding the terms of leniency for his followers". Rick had to work hard to hide the smugness in his voice. He really wanted Negan to die.

After hearing his fate, Negan just looked into the crowd quietly. It seemed his smugness and confidence was gone. He was just a beat up man with no one who cared about him in the world. He seemed broken, he seemed ready to die.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day of trials ended in Negan's followers being granted probation. They were given tentative jobs by the communities they were staying in on a temporary basis. If they were found guilty of any suspicious behavior or plotting, their sentence would be changed to banishment.

Negan's choices of execution were death by hanging or death by firing squad. The people voted for death by firing squad that would be carried out that night.

At 5:00 that night, everyone came out and stood in the area outside of Alexandria's gates. Negan was dragged out again, and a blindfold was put around his face. Negan was asked if he had any final words. He nodded and calmly said "Fuck you all".

One representative from each of the communities was picked to be on the firing squad. Michonne was voted as Alexandria's representative, but she declined, and Rick took her place. The three members of the firing squad took their positions, aimed, and fired. Just like that, Negan was dead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_5 weeks later_

Michonne sat in a chair in her bedroom as Sasha carefully styled her locs into a bun on her head. It had been so long since anyone else had styled her hair that Michonne had completely forgotten how relaxing it could be. She lazily watched in the mirror as Sasha wrapped the locks around until they formed a crown on her head. Sasha then took flowers that Carl had picked, and used bobby pins to attach them to the bun she had made, so it looked like a crown of flowers circled her head. When Sasha was done, Michonne went to the mirror to admire Sasha's handiwork.

"It looks great" Michonne said smiling. "You look great" Sasha replied. "Now come on, they're waiting to help you with the dress and makeup". Michonne nodded and walked downstairs. As she made her way down the stairs she saw the smiling faces of Maggie, Rosita, Enid, Sherry, Tara (who had finally come back from her supply run), and Carol who had decided to rejoin her family and leave the Kingdom.

They all oooohed and ahhhhed about Michonne's hair, then quickly got to work putting makeup on her face. When they were done, they all stared at her in awe. Michonne wished she could see what they were looking at, but they refused to give her the mirror until she had her dress on. Maggie said something about it ruining the surprise. Michonne rolled her eyes, but obeyed her friend's command.

Maggie then told Michonne to close her eyes while they helped her to get into the dress. Michonne had never seen the dress, Maggie who declared herself Michonne's matron of honor, had picked it out. Michonne's morning sickness had gotten pretty bad in the following weeks after it started, and seeing as though Alexandria still didn't have many cars due to Negan shooting them up, the only real transportation around were horses from the Kingdom. Michonne couldn't stand all the shaking that riding a horse would give her, so Maggie who didn't have any morning sickness and who's baby was healthy, practically demanded to go on a run to a nearby bridal shop to pick a dress.

Michonne dutifully closed her eyes, trusting the women around her, who helped her step into the bridal gown. It was pulled up her body, and Michonne could feel someone buttoning the back of the dress. It was strapless and tight fitting, and Michonne could feel the dress poof out at the bottom. Someone reached down and lifted the bottom of the dress so that she could carefully step into the heels that had been picked out for her.

Michonne got a quick unpleasant flashback of her being forced to wear heels for Negan, but she pushed it to the back of her mind. This was her wedding day, and nothing would ruin that.

Finally, Maggie held her hand and helped her walk over to a full length mirror. "Okay" Maggie said "You can look now".

Michonne slowly opened her eyes and gazed into the mirror. The sight before her caused her to gasp, and a cry escaped her lips. She looked beautiful. Tears immediately flowed, blurring her vision of herself. "Quick, get a tissue!" Rosita yelled "I told you waterproof makeup for weddings!".

Someone quickly took a tissue and dabbed under Michonne's eyes so that she wouldn't ruin her makeup, but so many tears were flowing that most of them were getting past the tissue.

"Dammit, just let her cry!" Michonne could hear Tara saying "We'll have to retouch the makeup anyway!"

Michonne opened her eyes again to get another glimpse of herself in the mirror. She hadn't seen herself in makeup in 2 years and she'd forgotten how beautiful she could be, how beautiful she used to be before everything. Besides the makeup, the dress that Maggie had picked was amazing. It was an off white color that contrasted with her dark skin, making her skin seem to glow. It was tightly fitted down to her hips, where it then flared out on the bottom. It had a long split up the side showing off her toned legs, and it was accented with rhinestones that caught the light.

Michonne tried to speak between cries but it was difficult. "It... it looks... so beautiful... I'm beautiful... thank... thank you Maggie..." Michonne managed to huff. Maggie just smiled and hugged her. "My pleasure. I think Rick is gonna have the same reaction".

"It buttons up in the back. Tell Rick to be careful not to rip all the buttons when he's taking it off" Rosita joked.

Michonne would've laughed if she wasn't crying so hard.

"Ok preggers #2, I'm gonna try to clean your face up now. That means you've gotta stop crying." Carol chided. Michonne nodded her head, but tears continued to fall. "Preggers #1, grab a few more tissues" Carol joked. Maggie rolled her eyes, but she grabbed some more tissues and passed them to Carol. As Carol continued to dab Michonne's eyes, she finally got control of herself enough to stop crying.

Carol reapplied Michonne's makeup, and then the bridal party was ready to walk over to the veranda in the middle of town, where the wedding would take place. Michonne picked up Judith, who had an off white dress to match her own, and flowers in her hair, and made her way out the door, surrounded by her bridal party.

Rick was already waiting at the veranda with Daryl his best man, and Glenn, Aaron, Eugene, and Morgan. He was nervous. He knew Michonne wasn't going to stand him up, but he was still sweating bullets anticipating her arrival. He wondered how she'd look in her dress. He wondered how her hair would be. He knew she would be beautiful, and he knew he wouldn't be able to hold back his tears.

As Michonne arrived at the grassy area around the veranda, Carl was waiting for her. She had asked him to walk her down the aisle and he had happily agreed. They were so close that she couldn't think of anyone else to give her away to Rick, it was he that had brought them together in the first place, telling Rick that she was "One of them".

As she approached him, his mouth fell open in shock. "Wow!" he said "You look beautiful mom". She started the tears again, this time not bothering to get her makeup fixed. Judith who was in her arms, reached up and patted her face, trying to wipe away her tears. This just set Michonne off even more. She couldn't help it, she was just so happy and the pregnancy hormones didn't help...

"Lets go mom, dad is sweating his suit out" Carl joked, causing her to laugh "I'll bet you a candy bar that he cries". Michonne snickered "I'll bet you two".

The veranda area was packed full of Alexandria residents as well as visitors from other communities that took the opportunity to celebrate and visit. Someone who could play the violin was hired as musical entertainment, and they spotted the bridal party lining up and began to play. Rick turned around as he heard the music and watched as the female members of his family walked down the aisle and lined up next to the veranda.

Suddenly he spotted Michonne in her wedding dress, with flowers in her hair, being escorted by his son, holding his daughter.

_She looks likes an angel, she looks like a queen, she looks like a mother, she looks like my wife. Oh my God, she's all mine._

The thoughts going through Rick's head brought a sob from his throat as he burst into tears watching his family walk down the aisle towards him. The thought that she was carrying their third child inside of her at the moment elicited another sob from him. It was just so beautiful.

Rick's reaction set Michonne off again. Carl patted her arm as they walked, trying to soothe her. When they reached each other at the front of the aisle, Rick broke tradition, kissing Michonne's cheeks and face before he could stop himself. Michonne handed Judith to Carl, and then held Rick's hand as they faced Father Gabriel.

Father Gabriel started "We are gathered here today for the marriage of Michonne and Rick. The couple has prepared their own vows. Rick, you may start."

Rick turned, directing his beautiful blue eyes into her beautiful brown ones."Michonne, when I first met you I was out of my mind. I treated you unfairly, I threatened you, I hurt you..." Rick's mind immediately went back to the moment she arrived at the prison with a bullet wound and he cruelly stuck his finger into her wound to hurt her. "I'm so sorry for hurting you... that wasn't me, and somehow you knew that. You made me feel like what I was going through was ok, that I wasn't so far gone that I couldn't come back. You trusted me when I didn't trust myself, and you loved me when I didn't love myself. I will gladly spend my whole life making up for my shortcomings. I will dedicate my life to loving you. I am yours forever. I love you." Rick looked into her eyes and smiled. Michonne smiled back.

Father Gabriel then said "Michonne, you can say your vows now"

Michonne gazed up at Rick. "Rick, before I met you I had given up on being a human being. I was so angry with myself, angry with the world, for what had happened to me, I didn't think I could be a friend, let alone a wife, to anybody. You brought out the real me. You made me part of your family. You trusted me with your children. You showed me that it was ok to smile, to laugh, to love again. If it weren't for you and your compassion I would be dead now, or worse, wandering out there with walkers until I died and became one of them. You brought me back to life... you helped me bring forth life." With that last comment the two of them started crying again. "I am yours forever. I love you too" Michonne managed to whisper.

By now, the majority of the audience was crying, including the entire bridal party.

"By the power vested in my by your mutual love, I now pronounce you man and wife. Rick you may now kiss your bride." Father Gabriel said.

Rick gave Michonne a wet, tear filled grin and swept her off her feet again, giving her a dip kiss. They hungrily kissed each other to the applause of everyone around. They kept kissing until an embarrased Carl said "save it for the honeymoon!" causing everyone to laugh.

The reception was more of a potluck, as guests each brought a dish to relieve the stress of feeding so many people at once. The violinist played music as people danced and socialized. Rick and Michonne wandered around greeting guests and receiving presents. Some time in the middle of the reception, the two of them had the opportunity to sneak off behind one of the houses and get a little alone time.

Rick led Michonne to a back yard where they were alone.

"You look beautiful" he murmured into her ear. "You look sexy" she replied. "You clean up really well Officer Grimes". He looked at her with a playful look on his face. She only called him Officer Grimes in the bedroom.

He tilted his head to the right and looked at her with his eyes, telepathically asking her if she wanted him right then and there.

"Oh yes" she answered out loud, and without a further thought he was kissing her frantically, desperately, sticking his tongue in her mouth, running his hands up and down her body, thrusting himself against her.

"Mmmmm" she moaned, throwing her head back, and he immediately put his mouth on her throat, sucking her neck and biting it.

She reached down to his crotch and she could feel that he was rock hard already. "Yes Officer Grimes" she moaned again, driving him wild. He reached around to her butt and lifted her off the ground, trapping her against the side of the house. She wrapped her legs around his waist and continued kissing him as she grinded her hips into him.

"Ah... Michonne..." he moaned, unable to control himself for much longer. "Do it Rick" she begged "I want you inside of me now. I wanna feel my husband." His eyes popped open, as he realized that she called him that for the first time. He stared into her eyes "I wanna feel my wife" he growled. He held her against the wall with one hand as he unzipped his pants with the other.

Without further prompting he thrusted inside of her, causing her to gasp. She gripped him tighter with her thighs and he franctically pounded into her. Both of them were ready and on the verge of orgasm.

"Yesssss Rick" she moaned. Her words brought him higher and higher until he moaned "Uhhh... I'm... com..." he didn't get to finish his sentence as he came inside of her. His erratic thrusting caused her to come, riding out her orgasm by grinding against him.

When they both came back down to earth he gently put her back down. They smiled at each other not needing to say a word. He helped fix her dress and she smoothed out his shirt. They then rejoined the party feeling more connected to each other than ever.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_8 months later_

"Riiiiiiick" Michonne moaned as a painful contraction paralyzed her body. She squeezed his hand tightly as she fought through the pain. "Just breathe baby, breathe in" he coached. She took a deep breath in. "Now breathe out" he said. She took a deep breath out. "Ok, do it again honey, that's right, keep going". She continued to breathe as he massaged her lower back which he knew experienced shooting pain with every contraction.

Rick watched her with concern, she had been in labor for 8 hours already, and with no pain medication she was starting to get exhausted. Rick had never seen a natural birth before, and didn't know what to expect. Lori had had Carl by C-section after her cervix refused to dilate, and he wasn't around for the birth of Judith as the prison was under attack at the time.

After a minute or two she was able to speak again. "Rick" she gasped. "Yes baby" he said, looking into her eyes. "I'm scared" she admitted. He kissed her forehead and tucked her locs behind her ears. "Don't be scared honey. You're going to be ok, our baby will be healthy. You're doing great. I know you're tired, but you can do this. You can do anything." he kissed her forehead again.

She nodded. She looked so frightened, but so trusting of him, that he nearly cried right there.

_No Rick, you need to be strong for her now._

He continued massaging her back as she continued breathing. Suddenly she had another contraction. He grabbed her hand again and she squeezed harder this time. She let out a groan and then a high pitched scream that scared him to death.

"Doctor Carson, get in here!" he yelled. The pediatrician from Hilltop ran into the room, he had heard her scream as well.

"Unh... it hurts... bad..." she managed to get out before she threw her head back in a silent scream.

"Ok, when this contraction is over I'm gonna check you" he said calmly. His calm demeanor calmed Rick down slightly, until he looked back at Michonne and saw her contorting her face in pain. He knew it hurt even more than she was letting on, if she was showing that she was in pain at all it had to be bad.

Rick continued to talk her through the painful contraction and within a few minutes she was able to open her eyes again. She laid back, and Doctor Carson checked her cervix to see how dilated she was. He looked concerned.

"Well I can definitely see the baby's head" he said "your baby has a full head of curly hair". He paused as if he was about to give bad news "but it looks like it's head is facing the wrong direction. It's being born face up".

Rick looked confused. "What does that mean? Is that bad?"

Doctor Carson looked at Michonne "It's why you're in so much pain, the baby's head is pushing into your tailbone".

She rolled her eyes. "Who are you telling? I can feel it. Will the baby be ok?"

Doctor Carson nodded. "From the heart rate the baby isn't in distress, it will just be painful until you get the head out."

"Well great" Michonne said sarcastically. Rick was glad she at least had her sense of humor.

He could feel her tense up and knew another contraction was coming. She gritted her teeth and then let out another cry of pain. Rick continued to talk her through her breathing until the contraction faded away.

After each contraction she looked more and more worn out. He didn't know how long she could keep this up. He took a cold cloth and wiped the sweat from her brow. She grabbed his hand and looked into his eyes.

"Rick. If something happens to me, please don't let Carl see me... not like this." She had tears running down her face. "He had to put his mom down and I know it haunts him... and I don't want to traumatize him any further... and... and... ahhhhhh". Her final words were cut off by another contraction. They seemed to be coming even faster.

"Breathe baby, just breathe. In. Out. In. Out." he spoke to her. As she came out of the contraction she said "I feel a lot of pressure. I think the head is coming". Dr. Carson checked her again and he had a smile on his face. "Very good Michonne" he said, "the baby's head is almost completely out. Now you just need to give a few good pushes and you'll have yourself a baby".

Rick looked up at her with complete admiration. This woman's strength amazed him.

She nodded. She took a deep breath and gave a hard push. "Yes, push push push" Dr. Carson encouraged. "That's it baby, keep pushing" Rick added. Michonne stopped to take a breath and then continued pushing.

"Rick come here" Dr. Carson called. He moved around to where Dr. Carson was and looked on in wonder as his baby's full head was visible.

"OK Michonne, one more good push should do it" Dr. Carson called. Michonne pushed with everything she had, and the baby slowly started to move from her body. Dr. Carson grabbed the baby, and with a small pop, it burst from it's mother.

Rick had tears in his eyes as he looked down at his daughter. "It's a girl Michonne! We have a little girl!" Rick cried. Michonne, still trying to catch her breath, reached out her hands for her baby. Dr. Carson carefully placed the baby on Michonne's chest, umbilical cord still attached, and patted her on the back to get her to cry.

She suddenly let out a loud wail, taking her first breath. Michonne burst into tears, rocking the little girl on her chest. "Hi honey, welcome to the world" she murmured, completely forgetting the pain. Rick moved over to Michonne's side, in complete awe of the baby girl and her mother.

"Rick would you like to cut the umbilical cord?" Dr. Carson asked. Rick nodded. Dr. Carson clamped the cord and then showed Rick where to cut. It was the first time he had any part in the birth of his children and he was an emotional mess.

As he sobbed in joy, Michonne wrapped the girl in a blanket Dr. Carson had given her. "Here Rick, do you want to hold your daughter?" Michonne asked. He nodded and carefully lifted the beautiful baby girl. As he held her she opened her eyes and Rick was shocked to see blue eyes, the same color as his. "Michonne look! look at her eyes!" he whispered proudly. Michonne was shocked that the baby had blue eyes. She never thought she'd have a blue eyed child, but she was overjoyed that she had the same eyes as her father. "She has your curly hair too" Michonne said. "But she has your beautiful lips, and your eye shape" Rick said "and I hope she has your skin too, it's so beautiful" Rick said, bending down and kissing Michonne's shoulder.

Michonne smiled. "I know what I want to name her". Rick looked at Michonne "What is it?". "I want to name her Joy. Joy Andrea Grimes. I never thought I'd have joy again after I lost Andre, and Andrea. I think that's the perfect name for her". Rick looked down at the baby who was now sleeping peacefully in his arms. "Joy. It's perfect. She's perfect".


End file.
